Benghazi consulate attack: British contractor 'warned US repeatedly about security' On the night of September 11, 2012, dozens of armed Islamists struck the main US compound and a CIA annex. Four Americans, including Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, were killed in the attack. Gregory Hicks, Mr Stevens' deputy, has said they requested more security for the mission and were frustrated by the refusals of senior State Department officials in Washington. Speaking to CBS for a 60 Minutes special, Mr Jones said Stevens was indeed concerned about the compound's security and had sought his advice just hours before the attack commenced. He added that Sean Smith, a career US foreign service officer also killed in the attack, "wasn't happy with the security." However the former British soldier "promised him he'd be OK." Mr Jones recounted learning in a telephone call from one of his guards that the Libyan militia had fled, as he had predicted, and that the unarmed guards he had trained for the US had been overwhelmed. "I could hear gunshots," Mr Jones said. He said 'there's men coming into the mission'. His voice, he was scared, you could tell he was really scared, and he was running. A quick-reaction force from the nearby CIA annex arrived and rescued five Americans, but were forced to shoot their way out before they were able to find Stevens, who died from smoke inhalation. Mr Jones said he rushed to the compound from his flat 15 minutes away, and scaled its 12-foot-high wall to try to help the guards he had trained and American officials trapped inside. "One guy saw me," Mr Jones told CBS News, referring to one of the militants. He just shouted. I couldn't believe that he'd seen me because it was so dark. He started walking towards me. As I got closer, I just hit him with the butt of the rifle in the face. Jones said the attacker dropped to the floor "like a stone," having had his "face smashed in." Mr Jones said that despite being pistol-whipped and beaten, the Libyan guards were ultimately freed by the attackers, who told them: "We're here to kill Americans, not Libyans." Two former US Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were later killed defending the CIA annex. US authorities were reported in August to have filed sealed criminal charges over the attack against several people, including Ahmed Abu Khattala, a senior figure in the Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia.