President Biden, right, talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Susan Walsh/AP

WASHINGTON — The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets on the ground to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on October 1. They were divisible within the “Five Eyes”, which are the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted on the messaging app Telegram and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained through another method, such as a hack — and whether other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. . As part of that investigation, officials are trying to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.

The US has urged Israel to take advantage of the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and push for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has also urgently warned Israel not to continue military operations in the north in Lebanon to expand and risk a broader regional war. However, the Israeli leadership has repeatedly emphasized that it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports about the documents but would have no further comment.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the leak of the two documents.

The documents first appeared online on Friday through a channel on Telegram, claiming they were leaked by someone in the US intelligence community and later by the US Department of Defense. The information appeared to have been collected entirely through satellite image analysis.

One of the two documents was similar in style to other U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency material leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking top-secret military documents about Russia’s war against Ukraine and other national security secrets.

The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It previously published memes featuring Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle Eastern militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.