US official charged over leak of Israel plan to attack Iran
A US government official has been charged for allegedly leaking classified documents appearing to show Israeli plans for a retaliatory attack on Iran.
Israel carried out air strikes on Iran in October, targeting military sites in several regions, in response to the barrage of missiles launched by Tehran weeks earlier.
Leaked classified documents are said to have contained the US’s assessment of the plans ahead of the attack, as well as the movements of Israeli military assets in preparation.
The official, Asif Rahman, was arrested in Cambodia on Tuesday and brought to federal court in Guam to face charges, according to the indictment, seen by US media.
Mr Rahman worked for the CIA abroad and held a top secret security clearance, the New York Times reported. He was due to appear in court on Thursday, charged with two counts of wilfully transmitting classified information.
The documents that Mr Rahman allegedly leaked were not stated in the court documents, but a source confirmed to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that they related to the Israeli attack plans.
In October, two documents appearing to be attributed to the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, a Department of Defense agency, were published on an Iranian-aligned Telegram account. —BBC
