WASHINGTON: A top Pentagon official was placed on leave pending investigation on Wednesday amid a probe into leaks in the Defence Department that was launched last month.

Deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick is the second top Defence Department official _ along with Dan Caldwell, another senior adviser to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to be put on leave this week.

Hegseth`s chief of staff Joe Kasper signed a March 21 memo requesting an investigation into `recent unauthorised disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications`.

`I expeet t o be informe d immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorised disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal lawenforcement entity for criminal prose cution,` the memo said.

In a sign of his seniority, Caldwell was named by Hegseth as the Defence Department`s point of contact in a group chat on commercial messaging app Signal in which top officials discussed military action against Yemen`s Houthis.

The Pentagon inspector general`sofficeannounced an investigation earlier this month into Hegseth`s use of the app _ a probe unrelated to the one requested by Kasper.

The use of Signal by top officials resulted in a scandal when National Security Adviser Mike Waltzinadvertentlyadded a journalist to the chat on the Yemen strikes, leading to the disclosure of its contents.

Neither Waltz nor Hegseth have been fired or otherwise disciplined over the incident so far.-AFP