C.I.A. issued warning about Nord Stream pipeline attack

The C.I. A. issued a vague warning in June to a number of European nations, including Germany, that the two Nord Stream gas pipelines that carry natural gas from Russia could be targeted in forthcoming attacks, three senior officials familiar with the intelligence said on Tuesday.

The warning was not specific, and they didn't say whether Russia had been identified as a possible attacker. American officials said that they had reached no conclusion about who might have been responsible for the damage to the pipelines, although it appeared likely that the damage was caused by sabotage. Both of the pipelines suffered a sudden loss of pressure and released gas into the sea, European officials reported, and the chances that both of them suffered accidents nearly simultaneously seem low.

The German publication Der Spiegel was the first to report that the U.S. had issued a strategic warning of a possible attack, a warning that came with no specifics about the likely time or place of a potential strike.

The C.I. A. didn't want to comment on the warning.

The Biden administration, which accused Russia of planning attacks on Ukraine in the run-up to the war, was careful not to blame Moscow or anyone else for planning attacks on Ukraine. At the White House news briefing on Tuesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary, said she was not going to speculate on the cause of this.