The New York Times, citing informed sources, reported that U.S. government investigators put about 50 members of the joint staff of this country’s armed forces under a lie detector test over their alleged information leakage to journalists, including in relation to critical U.S. ammunition reserves in the Iran war.

According to the report, investigators asked military officers and civilian staff whether they had provided classified information, including information related to the reduction of U.S. ammunition reserves, to journalists.

These tests were carried out in August and after reports were published about shortages of key munitions, including long-range missiles and Patriot interceptor missiles.

The New York Times reported that conducting large-scale polygraph tests on this scale among senior U.S. military officials had been unprecedented.

Sean Parenell, the Pentagon spokesperson, said the ministry does not comment on internal issues related to personnel or investigations, but “takes all cases of leaks of classified information related to national security very seriously and, accordingly, investigates them.”