US bugged 38 embassies, including allies, latest Snowden leak indicates

US intelligence services spied on at least 38 foreign embassies and missions, including those of allies, according to the latest secret documents leaked by National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

It collected information with bugging devices, tapped cables and specialised antennas, the documents showed.

Among the sites listed on one document as "targets" are the European Union's missions in New York and Washington.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets also includes the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as those of a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention Britain or Germany.

One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed Dropmire, which, according to a 2007 document, is "implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC" - an apparent reference to a bug placed in a commercially available encrypted fax machine used at the Washington mission. The NSA documents note the machine is used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals.