Assange charged in US with computer hacking conspiracy

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London on a US warrant charging him over his alleged role in a massive leak of military and diplomatic documents in 2010, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Assange faces up to five years in jail on a federal charge of "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer," according to a statement.

The indictment alleges Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, to crack a password stored on Department of Defense computers, leading to "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States," the statement said.