Reports: Army private suspected of leaking documents

Jul 30, 2010, 16:19 GMT

Washington - An Army private suspected of leaking tens of thousands of classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan to WikiLeaks has been transferred to the United States, US media reported.

Private first class Bradley Manning, 22, who has been held in Kuwait for weeks on a related case, was taken to a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, Fox News reported.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has pledged to aggressively find the source behind the leaking of 91,000 documents generated in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. Leaking classified information is a violation of US law.

Manning, 22, was an intelligence analyst in Iraq and possessed a security clearance. Defence officials told Fox News that evidence that he downloaded the documents was found on his computer.

Manning was being held in connection to the earlier leaking of classified footage of a helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 that killed some civilians. WikiLeaks, a whistle-blower website, posted the video in April.

Manning will be held in confinement at Quantico until investigator determine who helped him provide the documents to WikiLeaks, the defence officials said.

Gates has said that while the information in the documents about events in Afghanistan is old, it also revealed sources and methods of operations that could result in violent retributions against Afghans or US troops.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, told reporters Thursday that WikiLeaks founder blood 'on his hands.'