US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she assumes responsibility for last month's deadly attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which has become an issue in the hard-fought US presidential campaign.
"I take responsibility" for what happened on September 11, Clinton said on Monday in an interview with CNN during a visit to Peru, adding that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden would not be responsible for specific security instructions for US diplomatic facilities.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has seized on the attack and said the death of Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans killed at the consulate revealed weakness in Obama's foreign policy.
"I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world," Clinton said.
"The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision."
Republicans in particular have focused on the Obama administration's shifting explanations for the attack, which Clinton said in two separate television interviews on Monday were the result of "the fog of war".
"Remember, this was an attack that went on for hours," Clinton told Fox News. "There had to be a lot of sorting out... Everyone said, here's what we know, subject to change."
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