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Al-Jazeera hacked by Syrian goverment loyalists

AP September 05, 20127:13AM



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AL-JAZEERA'S website was hacked overnight apparently by Syrian government loyalists accusing the news service of spreading lies.

Hackers replaced the home page of al-Jazeera's Arabic site with a statement that said the cyberattack was a protest against its coverage of the Syrian conflict.

"This is in response to your position against Syria (people and government) and for special support of militant terrorism," read a statement posted in Arabic, underneath a red stamp reading "hack" in English.

In the background was a scene from al-Jazeera's English website.

Al-Jazeera's TV broadcasts in Arabic and English were not affected.

In a statement, the channel said that some of its external servers were compromised.

While the company resolved the disruptions, it said, "some users may continue to experience issues for a while longer".

The Qatar-based channel has extensively covered the 17-month-long Syrian conflict.

Al-Jazeera has been an influential factor in covering "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region.

Qatar is a harsh critic of the Syrian regime and a leading backer of the rebels.

It is the second Syria-related hacking incident on a news organisation in the past month after Reuters was hacked in August with false reports from Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 26,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt began in March last year - more than two-thirds of them civilians.