Fifteen Libya Emails Missing From Clinton Cache

The US State Department has said it cannot find 15 emails from Hillary Clinton's private server that were released by a House of Representatives panel investigating the 2012 attack in Benghazi.

The emails, which all pre-date the 11 September attack on the US diplomatic compound, contain intelligence reports passed to Mrs Clinton by her long-time adviser Sidney Blumenthal, officials have said.

Several previously undisclosed emails were handed over to the State Department by Mr Blumenthal, which revealed it did not have a complete record from Mrs Clinton's time in office as Secretary of State.

The 15 emails were either missing from the records she provided, or included only in partial form.

They include a media account about the killing of one of Moammar Gaddafi's sons, reports on internal politics among Libyan rebels and news of the assassination of a former Gaddafi minister in Vienna.

The last one was sent 28 August, 2012 - two weeks before the Benghazi attack.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs Clinton, said the Democratic presidential candidate had given the department "all emails in her possession from Mr Blumenthal".

He said he could not explain where the origin of the additional correspondence Mr Blumenthal had provided in response to a subpoena.

Mrs Clinton - the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election - has faced strong criticism that she flouted record-keeping and transparency rules by using a private email account for her work.

The private address was connected to a server in her home.

Mrs Clinton has insisted she used the private account for convenience and has broken no rules. The account was revealed in March, more than two years after she stepped down as the top US diplomat.

Trey Gowdy, the Republican congressman who heads the select committee investigating the Benghazi attack, said the incomplete email record "raises serious questions".

He said: "This has implications far beyond Libya, Benghazi and our committee's work.

"This conclusively shows her email arrangement with herself, which was then vetted by her own lawyers, has resulted in an incomplete public record."

In March, Mrs Clinton said that she had given the State Department all the emails she sent and received that "could possibly be work-related".

She said the 30,490 emails she handed over in December included all those that referred to Libya or Benghazi, along side work-related correspondence from "long-time friends".

She said that after those emails were copies, all her correspondence - including another 30,000 that were deemed personal - were deleted from the server.

It comes after an Islamic-State militant thought to have been involved in the attack in Benghazi was reportedly killed in a drone strike in Iraq last week.

Four Americans, including US ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed during the attack on the US outpost in Benghazi on 11 September 2012.