EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS—The Prime Minister’s Office admits that security rules were breached after it posted two videos that showed the faces of military personnel serving overseas — including members of Joint Task Force 2, a secretive special operations force — potentially putting them at risk.

The Canadian Armed Forces imposed restrictions on revealing the identity of its personnel after two soldiers were killed in Canada in targeted attacks last October.

The two videos, produced by the prime minister’s own staff for his promotional video channel 24 Seven, were taken off line Tuesday morning.

The Prime Minister’s Office admitted hours later that the videos should never have been made public.

“After a second review, it became apparent that two of the videos should not have been posted,” said Rob Nicol, the prime minister’s director of communications.

“We regret the error and are reviewing protocols for such images.

“The safety of our troops is our number one priority. For this reason, there are protocols in place before images or videos are posted.”

A senior official had told Star Tuesday morning that the videos had been pre-cleared by the defence department and following a review, would be reposted on the prime minister’s web site.

“There’s nothing in those videos that was inappropriate,” the official told the Star.

In a statement later Tuesday, Gen. Tom Lawson, the chief of defence staff, said that while the risk to soldiers was “low,” the military recommended that the two videos be kept off-line.

Journalists who accompanied Stephen Harper on his surprise visit to Kuwait and Iraq were under strict orders not to show the faces of Canadian soldiers to protect their safety.

That’s because of concerns that Islamic State extremists would be able to identify the personnel and make them or their families the target of an attack.

The two videos in question were produced from Harper’s surprise weekend visit to Kuwait and Iraq.

In one video, highlighting Harper’s visit to near the front lines in northern Iraq, the faces of soldiers serving on the training mission are clearly visible. At several points, members of Joint Task Force 2, an elite group of soldiers who serve as Harper’s bodyguards in a warzone, were clearly visible.

A separate video of an interview with Defence Minister Jason Kenney at a Kuwaiti airbase shows Canadian personnel walking in the background.

And a photo on the prime minister’s website of him having breakfast with the troops in Kuwait clearly shows the face of a soldier in the background The imagery flies in the face of the explicit rules — and warnings — given to Canadian media along on the trip.

A member of the elite cadres of soldiers who provided close protection for the prime minister made a personal appeal to journalists, saying their safety depended on keeping their identities out of the public eye.

Brig.-Gen. Dan Constable, commander of the Canada’s Iraq mission, later drove home the concern that ISIL has made it their goal to target those soldiers involved in the fight against them.

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During the stopover in Kuwait, a member of the prime minister’s staff sent a reminder to media, entitled “ground rules photo.”

“FYI, again, for (Kuwait): no front faces recognizable, no name,” the official wrote.

But a senior official, who spoke to the Star on background Tuesday, said the publicity videos were “pre-cleared” for public release by the defence department before they had been posted. He said they were taken offline as a precaution for further review, but said they would be posted again.

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