The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks published nearly 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq war on Friday, calling it the largest classified military leak in history.

The latest round of leaked documents provides a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, a new window on the role that Iran has played in supporting Iraqi militants and many accounts of abuse by Iraqi's army and police, according to The New York Times.

The Times was one of a handful of news organizations that was provided early access to the papers.

According to new documents, the vast majority of slain civilians were killed by other Iraqis.

The U.S. military is notifying Iraqis named in the documents, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told CNN.

"There are 300 names of Iraqis in here that we think would be particularly endangered by their exposure," he said. "We have passed that information on to U.S. Forces Iraq. They are in the process right now of contacting those Iraqis to try to safeguard them."

The Pentagon had not previously warned Iraqi civilians who have cooperated with the United States that their names may be posted on the internet.

"We don't want to start notifying people and then find out that their names aren't in any of these documents that are released," Col. David Lapan, a top Pentagon spokesman, said earlier Friday. "Why put people through the trouble and the concern for no reason?"

The Pentagon denounced the release, which WikiLeaks said comprised 391,832 reports.

"This is all classified secret information never designed to be exposed to the public," Morrell told CNN Friday. "Our greatest fear is that it puts our troops in even greater danger than they inherently are on these battlefields. That it will expose tactics, techniques and procedures -- how they operate on the battlefield, how they respond under attack, the capabilities of our equipment ... how we cultivate sources (and) how we work with Iraqis."

After a similar release of 77,000 classified documents from the war in Afghanistan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said Wiki Leaks "might already have on their hands the *la*hd of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."

Morrell echoed that sentiment Friday.

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Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the USs public persona and what it says behind closed doors and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see whats going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington the countrys first President could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, todays document flood would be a mere embar****ment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.