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These kinds of operations which we call train, advise and assist, we don't in the normal course of events accompany those local partner forces when contact with the enemy is expected. so we either -- we do one of two things, we stay back at what we call the last cover and conceal position, right? that's before enemy contact is made or we don't even go on an operation if enemy contact is made. outside of active hostilities, our focus is to enable local forces to be able to conduct operations against the enemy. okay. yes, ma'am? >> do you have to say that the war on isis right now is shifting to...

Support the training, advising and assisting of the local african partners. and we mitigate the risk to u.s. forces with specific guidance that we will only accompany those forces when the prospects of enemy contact is unlikely. there are other areas in africa where we have a different construct. so what i just described to you is the construct that exists in west africa. clearly, and you've seen it in recent days, we have a different type of operation against al qaeda, al shabaab and al qaeda organizations inside of east africa, so, you know, we tailor the contact of u.s. forces based on the ...

To defend themselves? were they heavily defended or light trucks or not expecting much resistance? >> i'll answer the second part because i know. what happens subsequently will be the investigation. because the rules in that part of west africa are that we will only accompany our forces when the chances of enemy contact are unlikely. so with that, they were equipped with machine guns, small arms and obviously had the ability with communications capability to reach back and get greater larger supporting arms. >> have you learned at all what type of fires they came up? was it small arms or -- >>...

Search for sergeant johnson's body, can you tell us how many u.s. troops took part in the search and describe not just the drone that looked for him but other assets as well? >> i can't. again, that's down to a level of detail that is really going to require an investigation to lay that out. >> how many u.s. troops took part in the search. >> i can't tell you how many were involved in that mission. i don't know what each of those troops were doing at a given time once contact was made. anything i will tell you i'd be speculating. >> to clarify. u.s. forces don't go out if they expect enemy con...

Officials at really any questions on this ambush and whether there were failures, et cetera, a very different position here from the chairman of the joint chiefs. he came out and said every one of these questions from the media and others is legitimate and i'm going to stand here, i'm going to take them and answer the ones i can. i suppose maybe not the surprising thing at this point, but perhaps the frustrating thing is that many of those questions for him even remain unanswered. we did learn that this was not an ambush that took place to his understanding outside of where they were meant to ...