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Obama, Clinton to see Libya victims' bodies arrive

Updated at 12:18 p.m. ET

(CBS News) President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were expected Friday afternoon to attend the arrival in the United States of the bodies of the four Americans who died in this week's attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was identified as one of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was identified as one of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The State Department identified on Thursday night former Navy SEALs Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty as the two security personnel who died in Tuesday's attack in Benghazi, Libya, that also killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer.

The bodies' arrival, officially referred to as a transfer of remains ceremony, was planned for 2:15 p.m. ET at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan reports Clinton's attendance is a very personal mission for the secretary because she's said she sent Stevens to Libya and knew it was a risky assignment.

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The return of the bodies comes as many questions remain unanswered about the attack. The State Department still isn't clear what happened to Stevens for a five-hour period after the attack, leaving diplomats at the time wondering whether he had gone into hiding or had been kidnapped, Brennan reports. They don't know how his body ended up in a Benghazi hospital or who took it there.

Broadly, the attack draws into question one of the success stories of the Obama administration on the foreign policy front. Libya was viewed as a test of a strategy to achieve maximum impact through minimum military engagement.

It has been an intense week for Clinton. She's been at the White House in the Oval Office or the Situation Room at least six times during the past three days and is in constant contact with other National Security Council principles, Brennan reports. She has been speaking to Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta via secure video conference.

Above, watch Margaret Brennan's report from the State Department

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