Clinton Accepts Responsibility for Benghazi Attack During Heated Hearing

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she took responsibility for the Benghazi attack and that she had launched reforms to better protect diplomats in the field and help reduce the chance of another tragedy happening in the future.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted responsibility for the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, during a testimony at the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday.

"I took responsibility, and as part of that before I left office I launched reforms to better protect our people in the field and help reduce the chance of another tragedy happening in the future," Clinton said.

Clinton was called by the select committee to testify on her role and knowledge of the September 2012 attacks on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US government employees were killed in the attacks.

"I was the one who asked Chris [Stevens] to go to Libya as our envoy," Clinton stated. "After the attacks I stood next to President Obama as Marines carried his casket and those of the other three Americans off the plane at Andrews Air Force Base. I took responsibility."

Republican lawmakers claim the White House and State Department did not send military back-up to the besieged diplomats to avoid publicly admitting the attack was carried by al-Qaida-backed terrorists. The Obama administration had said it decimated the terrorist network by killing Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Clinton has previously rejected accusations that the Obama administration had tried to mislead the US public about the Benghazi terrorist attack.