WASHINGTON, USA - Ex-CIA director David Petraeus arrived at the Capitol early Friday, November 16, for the highly-anticipated, closed-door congressional hearings on the September 11 assault on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The decorated general, making his first appearance since resigning last week in the wake of an extramarital affair with his biographer, entered a closed-door session of the House Intelligence Committee.

Petraeus avoided the assembled press pack but an official confirmed that he had entered the hearing room. He is due to attend a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee hearing later in the morning.

Lawmakers are expected to press him about intelligence operations in Libya and his agency's role in the incident, as well as security conditions at the US consulate and the nearby CIA annex in Benghazi during the attack which left four Americans dead, including ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Congressmen said Thursday that Petraeus traveled to Tripoli after the attack and interviewed several people involved in the incident, and that they wanted to hear directly from the general about what he learned on his trip to Libya. - Agence France-Presse