Top Trump administration officials, including US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, mistakenly included a journalist in a messaging group discussing strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, according to a firsthand account by The Atlantic magazine.

The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a report on Monday that he was inadvertently invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app called the "Houthi PC small group." In the group, national security adviser Mike Waltz tasked his deputy Alex Wong with setting up a "tiger team" to coordinate US action against the Houthis.

US President Donald Trump launched an ongoing campaign of large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Houthis on March 15 over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, and he has warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group.

Hours before those attacks started, Hegseth posted operational details about the plan, "including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing," Goldberg said, declining to disclose the details of what he termed the "shockingly reckless" use of the Signal chat to coordinate the strike.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, RTHK's US correspondent Simon Marks said the extent of the leak was astonishing.

"It is absolutely breathtaking. It is jaw dropping. It breaches every single national security protocol that not only this government in the United States would traditionally follow, but that governments all over the world would follow."

Still, Marks said it was more likely a mistake rather than a deliberate leak.

"It certainly appears to have been a monumental accident, but also it raises massive questions about how many more sensitive government national security conversations have been taking place across commercially available apps."

The Defence Department referred a Reuters request for comment to the National Security Council, and NSC spokesman Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic.

"At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security," Hughes said. (Reuters)
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Last updated: 2025-03-25 HKT 11:21