Armed man stands outside U.S. Consulate in Libya as it burns. Photo: Twitter.

A day before a Congressional hearing on the subject is scheduled to take place, new details have been released by the State Department regarding the recent attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left the American Ambassador to the country and three others dead.

Up until now, U.S. officials have clearly stated that the attack was prompted by the release of an anti-Islamic film. Ambassador Susan Rice made it clear to David Gregory in a Meet the Press appearance, as pointed out by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg:

(O)ur current assessment is that what happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of– of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video.  What we think then transpired in Benghazi is that opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding.  They came with heavy weapons which unfortunately are readily available in post revolutionary Libya.  And it escalated into a much more violent episode.

Now according to ABC’s Jonathan Karl, “we are hearing new details, details that we have never heard before about what went down, and this is significantly different from what we were told at the time.”

“Now we are told there was no protest going on outside that embassy,” he said.

Karl cites a Senior State Department Official as the source of the new information.

A video of the report can be seen below.