The US military in Afghanistan said Wednesday it was investigating the reported sale of military secrets smuggled out of its main base on stolen computer discs and sold in a public bazaar.
The information included classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of Afghan officials alleged to be corrupt and details of American defences and personnel, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported this week.
The data was smuggled out of the main US military base at Bagram near the capital Kabul on flash memory drives stolen from computers by Afghan cleaners and garbage collectors working inside the compound, the report said.
The computer drives were sold in a bazaar just outside the base along with other used goods, like knives and combat fatigues, it said. They fetched between 20 and 80 dollars.
Reacting to the report, the US-led military coalition said it took "operational security seriously."
"We will not comment in detail on these reports, but the circumstances are being reviewed. More information will be provided as it becomes available," said spokesman Lieutenant Mike Cody.
The Los Angeles Times said it had obtained computer drives that contained documents marked "secret", some of them naming suspected militants targeted for "kill or capture".
There was also information about US efforts to "remove" or "marginalise" Afghan government officials considered "problem makers" and documents that identified nearly 700 US service members and their social security numbers.
Other documents accused security forces in Pakistan - an ally in the US-led "war on terror" - of helping militants launch cross-border attacks on US and allied forces in Afghanistan.