His remarks came on the sidelines of a meeting with the Israeli Defense minister. [indiscernible] general mattis let me talk about it a little more broadly. Then i will narrow it down. First of all, our condolences to the families of the soldiers that we lost. Every life is critical. Look pastg people political rhetoric and volunteer for the armed forces, they are part of the 1 willing to do so in our country, these young men and women. We have been engaged with the french and African Forces in the time,had region for some supporting african troops in a campaign to throw isis and the radicals and those that foment instability and murder and mayhem off their stride. The french maintain over 4000 troops down there and we maintain a little over 1000 in support. Mostly, we are providing refueling support, intelligence support, and surveillance support. We also have troops on the ground. Their job is to help the people in the region learn how to defend themselves. We call it Foreign Internal Defense training. We actually do these kinds of missions through and with our allies. The loss of our troops is under investigation. We in the department of defense like to know what we are talking about before we talk. We do not have all of the Accurate Information yet and we will release it as rapidly as we get it. Because we are very proud of our troops. As you know, we investigate any time we have our troops killed, whether in training accidents or combat. I dont care if it is in a car accident. In dod, we investigate the circumstances around it and see how we can address the very questions you brought up, what can we do in the future . At the same time, war is war and these terrorists are conducting war on innocent people of all religions. They are conducting war on innocent people who have no way to defend themselves. I will just tell you that in this specific case, contact was considered unlikely but there is a reason that we have u. S. Army soldiers there and not the peace corps. We carry guns. It is a reality. It is part of the danger that our troops face in these areas of terrorist campaigns. Remember, we do these types of missions by, through, and with our allies. It is often dangerous. We recognize that. We have been unapologetic about standing by our allies. Certainly, the french, with 4000 troops have been engaged down there for years and have lost many, many more troops. This is an example of how seriously we take this mission, that we put our troops in that position. Any time that we commit our troops anywhere, it is based on answering the simple first question, and that is, is the wellbeing of the American People sufficiently enhanced by putting our troops there because we put our troops in a position to die . That is the number one question when i make the recommendation to the president. One point i would make having seen some news reports, the u. S. Military does not leave our troops behind and i would ask that you not question the actions of the troops caught in the firefight, and question if they did everything they could in order to bring everybody out at once. And i would also ask you not to confuse your need for Accurate Information with our ability to provide it immediately in a situation like this. The french response included armed fighter aircraft, armed helicopter gunships, a medevac that lifted out our wounded. We did have a contract aircraft that lifted out our killed in action, and sergeant johnsons body was found later by local nationals. It says something that they would endeavor to get the body back to us, which shows the relationship we have in the area. A full investigation is underway , the sort of investigation we always conduct and we will certainly update you as we have information, Accurate Information not speculation. I will close by saying we need to stand together, united in this country when these heartwrenching times hit. Thank you. Reporter [indiscernible] general mattis as far as the stance we take, the tactical weapons we take and the protection efforts and capabilities, i dont telegraph that and dont want to tell the enemy what we are doing. I prefer not to answer that. America,our fallen in thats all i will say about gold star familys. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen