The White House has been caught in a hugely embarrassing national security row after it posted a picture of President Joe Biden meeting with US troops in Israel.
The Biden administration apologized and quickly deleted the image from the official Instagram page of the White House, which clearly showed soldiers’ faces and could have revealed their identities.
The picture in question showed Biden shaking hands with a soldier of the Delta Force – the US Army’s elite counter-terrorism unit – with three other soldiers visible in the shot.
It received thousands of likes on social media and several screenshots of the post were shared online.
A caption along with the now-deleted post read: “In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks.”
But the controversial picture appeared to break Department of Defence rules as typically, faces of soldiers are blurred for safety reasons,
The White House quickly realized the embarrassing error, deleting the post an hour after it was posted and apologizing.
A spokesman told the Daily Mail: “As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo. We regret the error and any issues this may have caused.”
Republicans quickly launched a furious attack against the Biden administration over the mistake, with GOP Reo, Diana Harshbarger calling it “gross incompetence”.
A handful of US special forces are currently in Israel to advise on the ongoing hostage situation involving Hamas.
Hundreds of people, including many Americans and Britons, are being held against their will by the terrorist group in Gaza.
The White House embarrassment comes with Biden making another public gaffe while addressing the nation from the Oval Office on Friday.
The president appeared to read his autocue instructions to “make it clear”, echoing a previous incident where he read out “repeat the line” in another speech.
He said: “We’ll have something that we do not seek — make it clear we do not seek — we do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia.”
Biden then appeared to make a mistake, saying “You’re all America” before correcting himself: “You’re all American.”
