The US launched an official investigation into what could be one a major intelligence security lapses in the Western world, on the leak of documents that show plans for Israel’s retaliatory strike on Iran.
A US official told sources that the documents appeared to be legitimate, while three other officials confirmed the US investigation into the leak.
The documents, marked top secret, first appeared on Telegram. The investigation intends to find if it was a security hack or an intentional leak by an insider.
Investigating members are now determining who all had access to the leaked documents, the official told AP.
The documents, marked top secret and attributed to the US National Security Agency (NSA) and National US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), showed Israel’s movement to ready for a military strike in response to Iran's October 1 ballistic missile attack.
This comes after the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and the US cautioning Israel to stop further military expansion in Lebanon in avoid to avoid a larger regional war.
The Pentagon acknowledged reports of the leak in a statement, but provided no further comments.
The documents first appeared via a Telegram channel on Friday, and resembled information gathered through satellite image analysis.
Out of the two documents, one closely resembled the classified military documents from NGA in appearance, earlier leaked by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.