Headscratchers / 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

• Why didn't the bad guys use mortars to bomb the CIA team on the rooftops BEFORE launching their assault of the compound? It doesn't take a military genius to figure out this useful strategy!
  • It takes time to mobilize such arsenal to the proper location and they had no idea how long of a window they would have to attack before an allied militia or the Libyan army got involved. In addition hostages were the goal, not just kill everything.
  • Also, it’s based on true events. People in real life do stupid things all the time.
  • Their previous strategy of just stomping everyone with overwhelming force had been working great up until then, and once they realized they were up against serious resistance, they did start changing their approach.
• Exactly what Tyrone complained to the Chief at the beginning of the film: how did a building with armored vehicles and white people entering and leaving managed to be kept secret from local hostiles until the events of the film transpired?
  • In the airport at the end, Tanto says the mortars had to have been sighted way in advance to hit with that kind of accuracy. That means the annex wasn't actually as secret as anyone might have claimed.