US: Search on for source of highly classified intel leak

Officials in the United States are scrambling to identify the source of an apparent breach of highly classified documents.

The leak reportedly give details on a range of topics, including Ukraine air defense and Israel's spy agency.

What is the latest?

The Justice Department and the Pentagon said on Sunday that an interagency effort is examining the impact it could have on US national security and on its allies.

While the Defense Department is still assessing the validity of photographed documents circulating online, they "appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.

"An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on US national security and on our allies and partners," she said in her statement.

Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and other platforms have seen a flow of leaked documents in the last few days and new documents continue to appear online.

What impact could the leaks have?

The areas addressed in the documents include the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East, and Africa.

News agency Reuters reports that one of the documents, dated February 23, and bearing the mark "Secret," mentions how Ukraine's S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate.

Officials have told the Washington Post that some documents appear to have been manipulated but some others were consistent with CIA World Intelligence Review reports that are shared at high levels within the White House, Pentagon, and State Department.

The US media said that the leak could prove valuable to Russia by shedding light on how deeply US intelligence has penetrated parts of the Russian military structure.