Benghazi was a deadly, coordinated attack on U.S. facilities in Libya on the night of September 11–12, 2012, that killed four Americans and sparked years of political controversy in the United States.

Benghazi Attack: What Happened?

Quick timeline

  • Date & place: Night of September 11–12, 2012, in Benghazi, eastern Libya.
  • Targets :
    • A temporary U.S. diplomatic mission/compound.
    • A separate CIA annex about 1 mile away.
  • Americans killed :
    • U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
    • State Department information officer Sean Smith.
    • CIA security contractors and former Navy SEALs Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty.

How the night unfolded

1. First attack – U.S. diplomatic compound

  • Around 9:40–9:42 p.m. local time , a large group of heavily armed men approached the U.S. diplomatic compound from multiple directions, shouting and firing weapons.
  • Attackers used assault rifles, rocket‑propelled grenades, grenades, heavy machine guns, mortars, and fuel for arson.
  • They breached the compound’s security, set buildings on fire , and overwhelmed the small U.S. security team.
  • Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith became trapped in a smoke‑filled safe area; Smith was found dead, and Stevens was later located by Libyans and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from smoke inhalation.
  • Surviving personnel conducted a fighting withdrawal and evacuated from the mission to a more secure location.

2. Movement to the CIA annex

  • U.S. security personnel and other staff regrouped at a nearby CIA annex , roughly a mile away, which served as a fallback point.
  • A drone was sent to provide real‑time imagery over the area as the situation evolved.

3. Second wave – attack on the CIA annex

  • In the early hours of September 12, attackers shifted focus to the CIA annex and launched repeated assaults with small arms and heavier weapons.
  • There were lulls and then renewed bursts of fire as the defenders held the compound through the night.
  • At around 4:00–5:15 a.m. , mortar fire struck the roof where members of the security team were positioned, killing Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty and seriously wounding others.
  • After the mortar strike, U.S. personnel organized an evacuation to the airport under fire, moving roughly 30 Americans out of Benghazi.

Why it mattered so much later

Although your question is about “what happened,” the Benghazi attack quickly became a major political flashpoint in the U.S. because of:

  • Security concerns
    • Reviews later pointed to “systemic failures” and gaps in security at senior levels of the State Department, noting that the Benghazi mission had requested more protection before the attack.
  • Spontaneous protest vs. planned attack
    • Early public statements by officials suggested the attack grew out of protests related to an anti‑Islam video.
* Later investigations concluded the assault was **premeditated** , even if opportunistic locals may have joined in once it began.
  • Military response debates
    • Critics argued more U.S. military help should or could have been sent; multiple official inquiries later found no evidence of a deliberate stand‑down order, but the timing and options for a response remained heavily debated.
  • Email and political fallout
    • A special House committee formed to investigate Benghazi eventually uncovered Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server , which grew into a separate major scandal and influenced U.S. politics for years.

Different viewpoints you’ll see in forums

If you browse forums or Reddit threads about “Benghazi attack what happened,” you’ll see several recurring angles:

  • “Straight timeline” view – Focuses on the sequence of attacks, the weapons used, the number of defenders, and how the four Americans died, usually trying to strip away later political fighting.
  • “Security failure” view – Emphasizes that the mission was under‑secured in a dangerous city after Libya’s 2011 war, and that warnings were missed or not acted on.
  • “Political scandal” view – Focuses heavily on whether officials misled the public, withheld military help, or covered up mistakes for political reasons, especially regarding the Obama administration and then‑Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A typical forum summary often boils down to:

A lightly defended U.S. mission in a unstable Libyan city was hit in two stages by heavily armed militants; four Americans were killed, and the aftermath turned into years of partisan warfare in Washington.

Today’s “latest news” angle

  • The attack itself is in the past (2012), but it still surfaces in discussions about U.S. diplomatic security , intelligence failures , and politicization of foreign policy crises.
  • Newer articles tend to focus less on “what happened minute by minute” and more on lessons learned : improved compound security, crisis procedures, and how to avoid turning tragedies into purely partisan fights.

TL;DR:
Armed militants attacked a lightly protected U.S. diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi over the night of September 11–12, 2012, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans during hours‑long firefights and mortar attacks; the event later became a long‑running U.S. political and media firestorm over security failures, official statements, military response, and Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.