US military dismisses chance of massive troop surge in Afghanistan

Washington: Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday dismissed chances of a return to the major US troop deployments to Afghanistan that characterised the early years of the Obama administration, a day after the White House gave him power to set troop levels.

Asked whether he expected to hike US troop levels, now at about 8,400 in Afghanistan, to anywhere near America`s 2011 peak of more than 100,000 troops, Mattis said, "No, sir, I do not."