Chelsea Manning released from prison

Credit: U.S. Army via AP

US soldier turned whistleblower Chelsea Manning has been released from prison.

Manning, previously known as Bradley, was convicted in 2013 of leaking a cache of American military and diplomatic papers to WikiLeaks.

She was originally sentenced to 35 years in prison - meaning she would have been behind bars until 2045.

But former US President Barack Obama reduced Manning's remaining prison sentence so she could be released early.

Chelsea Manning was known as Bradley before identifying as a woman. Credit: AP

A US Army spokesperson confirmed the former low-level army intelligence analyst had left Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas early Wednesday morning.

Hours after her release Manning celebrated by tweeting a picture of her feet along with the message "First steps of freedom!!"

During Manning's trial it emerged she had copied some 250,000 diplomatic cables from American embassies around the world.

Hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were also copied before being disclosed to WikiLeaks.

Shortly after being convicted she revealed that she identified as a woman and changed her name from Bradley to Chelsea.