Pentagon's Hegseth texted start time of planned killing of Yemeni militant
World
Pentagon's Hegseth texted start time of planned killing of Yemeni militant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before a surprise military operation meant to be shrouded in secrecy, according to screenshots of a chat released by The Atlantic on Wednesday.
The revelation that highly sensitive attack plans were shared on a commercial messaging app, possibly on personal cellphones, has triggered outrage in Washington and calls from Democrats that members of Trump's national security team be fired over the leaks.
President Donald Trump's administration has sought to contain the fallout from the revelation that the March 15 chat included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied texting war plans, and Trump and his top advisers are saying no classified information was shared, bewildering Democrats and former US officials, who regard timing and targeting details as some of the most closely held material ahead of a US military campaign.
"I think that it's by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now," Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
If Houthi leaders knew a strike was coming, they might have been able to flee, possibly to crowded areas where targeting is more difficult and the number of potential civilian casualties might be deemed too high to proceed.
The chat did not appear to include any names or precise locations of Houthi militants being targeted or to disclose information that could have been used to target US troops carrying out the operation.
Pentagon officials aware of the planning believed that information Hegseth texted was classified at the time, one US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, raising questions over whether, when and how Hegseth's text messages may have been declassified.
It has also renewed scrutiny of Hegseth, who only narrowly won Senate confirmation after a bruising review that raised serious questions about his experience, temperament and views about women in combat.
The White House played down the idea that Hegseth or others would lose their jobs, saying Trump retained confidence in them.
Trump also played down the Yemen leak, saying on a podcast "there was nothing in there that compromised ... the attack."
Goldberg, who had initially declined to publish the chat details, did so on Wednesday. The Atlantic magazine did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the release of the additional messages.
