MOSCOW, February 5 (RAPSI) - The National Security Agency monitored former German chancellor Schroder's phone, Süddeutsche Zeitung writes on Wednesday citing anonymous sources and Edward Snowden's revelations.

The newspaper attributes the wiretap to Schroder's criticism of the military action conducted in Iraq by the US. The NSA allegedly collected voice and written records, in addition to metadata.

Citing secret US National Security Association (NSA) documents, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported in November 2013 that the NSA had carried out surveillance on chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone for more than 10 years, and that her cell phone number had been on a special list of an NSA unit known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), since 2002.

The report was based on documents leaked by Snowden, who formerly served as an NSA contractor and an employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The young whistleblower attracted international attention over the summer after he leaked classified evidence of US government surveillance programs to the media.