Two employees of the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have been arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential information to the newspaper de Telegraaf, the public prosecutor in The Hague has said.

The employees, one of whom has since left the service, are said to have told the paper about AIVD failures in the run-up to the Iraq war, to which the Dutch gave political support. They are also thought to have told de Telegraaf about threats to the Dalai Lama, who visited the country earlier this month. The state secrets were leaked over the past two months.

Police have now searched the homes of both suspects. The home of a Telegraaf journalist was also raided by police on Thursday morning, the paper reports on its website. Telegraaf Editor-in-Chief Sjuul Paradijs said he was furious about the raid: "The private life of a journalist is being invaded in order to find a leak in the AIVD. This is an attack on press freedom."