The United States is investigating leaked documents claiming that Israel plans to attack Iran US Army

The US government is investigating the unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran.

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the investigation in statements to CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday, saying: “The leak is very disturbing.”

“There are some serious allegations being made out there,” the Louisiana Republican said. “The investigation is ongoing, and I will have a briefing on that in a couple of hours.”

Three US officials had previously told the Associated Press about the investigation into the leak. A fourth US official said the documents in question appeared legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and indicate that Israel was still moving military assets into place to launch a military strike in response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on October 1. It was shareable within the “Five Eyes”, namely the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The documents, which were classified as top secret, were posted on the messaging app Telegram and were 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 they were an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained in another way, such as a hack — and whether any other intelligence was compromised, one of the officials said. . As part of this investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were published, the official said.

The United States has urged Israel to capitalize on the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a ceasefire in Gaza. Likewise, it has urgently warned Israel against expanding its military operations in northern Lebanon and risking the outbreak of a broader regional war. However, the Israeli leadership has repeatedly stressed that it will not let the Iranian missile attack pass without a response.

The Pentagon said in a statement that it was aware of the reports regarding the documents, but had no further comment.

Johnson said on Sunday that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — referring to him as “my friend” — and explained how he made it a point to “encourage him.” He also said there would be “a classified briefing, and then another, but we are following it closely.”

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

The documents first appeared online on Friday via a Telegram channel, and claimed to have been leaked by someone in the US intelligence community and, later, by the US Department of Defense. The information appears to have been gathered entirely through the use of satellite image analysis.

One of the documents is similar in style to other material leaked by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which was leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guard soldier who admitted in March to leaking top-secret military documents about the Russian war in Ukraine and other national security secrets.

The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It has previously posted memes featuring Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material supporting what Tehran calls the “axis of resistance,” which includes Middle Eastern militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.