Washington, 25 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, said on Monday that he was accidentally included in a secret US government group chat that discussed sensitive military plans regarding an attack on the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.

The conversation, which took place via the encrypted messaging app Signal, involved high-ranking officials from the Trump administration.

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, confirmed that the chat history appeared authentic and announced an internal investigation into the incident.

In a report published on Monday, Goldberg detailed how, in mid-March, he was mistakenly added to the group chat.

The chat included key figures of Trump's administration, such as Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior government officials.

According to Goldberg, the chat covered both military tactics and political messaging related to a planned strike against Houthi rebels.

Two hours before the attack on March 15, Goldberg said he had received a message from Hegseth detailing targets, weapon systems and the timing of the operation. Shortly after, airstrikes against Houthi positions in Yemen were launched. The US had recently reclassified the Houthi militia as a foreign terrorist organization.

Goldberg, initially sceptical of the chat's authenticity, was convinced it was real after seeing reports of the strikes. He left the chat shortly thereafter, with no objections raised about his presence.

The incident has prompted calls for an investigation from opposition leaders in the US Senate.

Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, described the breach as "amateur behaviour" in a post on X.

"This kind of security breach is how people get killed. How our enemies take advantage. How our national security falls into danger," Schumer wrote, calling for a "full investigation into how this happened and the damage it created."