U.S. says two former Navy SEALS also died in Libya attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday identified two additional victims of this week's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as former Navy SEALS who died trying to protect their colleagues.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died in Tuesday's assault on the Benghazi consulate, which also killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department information management officer.

"Our thoughts, prayers, and deepest gratitude are with their families and friends. Our embassies could not carry on our critical work around the world without the service and sacrifice of brave people like Tyrone and Glen," Clinton said in a statement.

The statement identified both Woods and Doherty as former Navy SEALS with lengthy experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. It did not say in what capacity they were working in Benghazi.

"I am enormously proud of the men and women who risk their lives every day in the service of our country and our values. They help make the United States the greatest force for peace, progress, and human dignity that the world has ever known," Clinton said in her statement.

U.S. officials had confirmed that Stevens and Smith died in the attack, but said they could not confirm the identities of the two other victims pending notification of their families.

Three other U.S. personnel were wounded in Tuesday's attack, which took place amid a wave of anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East against a low-budget, anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to work with Libyan officials to seek justice for those responsible for the Benghazi attack, which presented Obama with a new foreign policy crisis less than two months before he seeks re-election.

The U.S. Navy's SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) teams are among the most storied of U.S. special operations forces.

Doherty's family, through a public relations firm, had released information about him, including comments from friends.

"Don't feel sorry for him, he wouldn't have it," wrote Brandon Webb, who identified himself as a former SEAL and friend of Doherty's.

"He died serving with men he respected, protecting the freedoms we enjoy as Americans and doing something he loved."

ABC News interviewed Doherty last month. At the time, he said he was working with the State Department on an intelligence mission to round up shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and destroy them, according to an ABC News report.

(Reporting By Andrew Quinn; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-two-former-navy-seals-died-libya-022816229.html

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