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Suspected IS enthusiasts hack Syrian activist website

Xinhua, July 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The official website of a main Syrian opposition monitor was taken offline Wednesday after being hacked by suspected supporters of Islamic State (IS) militant group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said its official website was subject to a hacking process and a destruction of stored data by the so-called "Caliphate Electronic Army."

It added that the hackers composed an image of the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul-Rahman, standing next to one of the IS executioners while wearing an orange jumpsuit, the same outfit IS push its prisoners to wear during beheading or any other form of execution.

The hackers also left a message, reading: "In a sudden and outstanding attack, the experts of the Caliphate hacked the main computer of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, hacking its website and destroying and terminating its data completely."

The hackers then urged the Observatory readers to follow the news through the "media office of the Islamic State."

Last February, the Observatory's site was hacked by a pro-government Syrian group, called the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).

The SEA then replaced the observatory's home page with a black screen, with a message describing Abdul-Rahman, the Observatory head, as an "agent of the British intelligence".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, founded in May 2006 as an information office opposed to the Syrian government, has been cited by many Western news outlets. Endit