UPDATE 2 - Chelsea Manning released from US prison

UPDATES WITH MANNING, ACLU STATEMENT

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Wikileaks source and former soldier Chelsea Manning has been released from prison on Wednesday after spending seven years behind bars.

Former President Barack Obama commuted much of her 35-year sentence in January.

Manning left the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas early Wednesday.

“After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived," Manning said in a statement. "I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past."

Underneath a Twitter photo of her legs and feet clothed in civilian attire she wrote, "First steps of freedom!!"

"#chelseaisfree", she added.

Chelsea Manning, who was formerly known as Bradley Manning, was convicted of providing whistleblower website Wikileaks with hundreds of thousands of classified and unclassified but sensitive documents in 2010.

She was arrested that year, and sentenced in 2013 to the longest prison term ever handed down for a leak conviction.

Manning was serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq when she made the controversial disclosures.

Her American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Chase Strangio, said "it is incredible to witness" Manning free.

"We can all finally truly celebrate the strength and heroism she has shown in surviving and sharing her truth and life with all of us," he said. "Through extended periods of solitary confinement and up against the government's insistence on denying her medical care and existence as a woman, Chelsea has emerged with grace, resilience, and an inspiring amount of love for others."

Manning, who expressed her desire to live as a woman while in prison and has been receiving hormone therapy, will remain on active duty while she appeals her court marshal conviction.

She said earlier this year that upon her release she was planning on returning to Maryland, where she lived previously.