The Pentagon has demanded WikiLeaks remove more than 70,000 classified documents published online as well return thousands more unpublished files about the Afghanistan war leaked last month.
Military commanders have urged WikiLeaks to return the unpublished documents which contain sensitive details of Afghans who have assisted coalition forces.
The Pentagon request comes amid increasing concern that the documents may be used by the Taliban to identify potential targets. However, a spokesman said he did not have a "high degree of confidence" that the information would be returned.
WikiLeaks has also posted a massive file of password-protected documents called "insurance" on its website which cannot currently be read online. It is thought that this file may contain thousands of new documents which will be released should anyone connected to the site be arrested anywhere in the world.
Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for the Pentagon said: "The longer they [the documents] hang out there, the more opportunity there is for those who wish us harm – to do us harm to use those documents to their advantage. So we're trying to, as best we can, to mitigate the damage caused by this and compel them to take those documents off the internet and return them to the rightful owner, the United States government."
However, he added: "They've [WikiLeaks] shown no indication thus far that they appreciate the gravity, the seriousness of the situation they have caused, the lives they have endangered, the operations they have potentially undermined, the innocent people who have potentially been put in harm's way as a result."
The Pentagon disclosed that it has a team of 80 people trawling through the documents attempting to assess the damage that they could cause.
The FBI and Pentagon suspect that Private Bradley Manning, a 22-year old intelligence analyst, is responsible for the leaks. Pte Manning is already in custody in Virginia on suspicion of leaking other information to WikiLeaks.
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