Pentagon tells Wikileaks to return Afghanistan documents

Wikileaks released top secret military documents around a week ago

The US Department of Defense has demanded the return of top secret documents published by Wikileaks relating to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, claiming that its actions have threatened the safety of US and Allied troops.

The whistle-blowing site released 90,000 reports around a week ago in one of the biggest intelligence leaks ever.

Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morell made the department's displeasure clear in a press conference yesterday.

"Wikileaks' public disclosure last week of a large number of documents has already threatened the safety of our troops, our allies and Afghan citizens," he said.

"The only acceptable course is for Wikileaks to take steps to return all versions of all of these documents to the US government, and permanently delete them from its web site, computers and records."

The site's founders appear to be unfazed by the demand, however, referring to Morell as "obnoxious".

"What we didn't hear from the Pentagon last week: 'Killing all those innocent people is bad. Sorry. We will stop that,'" they said in a Twitter post.

Wikileaks said that it is currently examining the Pentagon's request, and will issue a statement "in due course".

This is not the first time the site has clashed with the US military. US authorities are still seeking to interview Wikileaks founder Julian Assange following allegations in June that he was sent a huge cache of classified State Department cables by a disgruntled soldier in Iraq.

It is believed that Assange will be arrested if he tries to return to the US.