Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, a senior planner on the Joint Staff, on Thursday over accusations that he leaked classified information to the public, according to officials cited by Reuters, in a text republished by the Italian outlet Internazionale.

Sylvia led the Joint Staff’s Directorate for Strategy, Plans and Policy, known inside the military as J5, a key position that helps advise the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, told Sputnik that the ouster may have come from differences between Sylvia’s position on the war with Iran and that of Secretary Pete Hegseth, rather than from the alleged leak.