04 June, 2017
Hackers allied to Shiite militants in Bahrain seized control Saturday of the Twitter account of the island's foreign minister, posting a series of threats to its royal family and promising to "make castles of your skulls".
The hack, which purported to be carried out in the name of a fringe militant group, came after the Bahraini authorities dissolved the kingdom's last major opposition movement and after regime forces launched a brutal crackdown on the house of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Issa Qassem.
The incident occurred around 5:30 in the morning, local Arabic al-Wasat newspaper reported, adding that several tweets and videos insulting the minister were posted. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist Manama in its crackdown.
The Foreign Ministry did not accuse any party of carrying out the hacking, but it appeared to have been carried out by Shiite militants.
The Gulf state has been shaken by protests staged by Shiite majority population. "Our leaders, you have our pledge, our demand is Down with Hamad", said one message containing pictures of Shi'ite leaders said.
Photos of Bahraini victims as well as tweets about the Al Saud's crackdown on Shiite people in Saudi Arabia were posted to almost 400,000 followers of the Bahraini FM.
The hack comes days after an explosion in Qatif killed two men who Saudi authorities said were transporting explosives.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE all blocked a number of news sites accused of supporting "terrorism" and publishing "lies".
The account has over 378,000 followers, many of them diplomats, politicians and media figures.
Neighbouring Qatar is still investigating the May 24 hack of its official news agency website and Twitter account in which damaging comments about a raft of sensitive regional issues were falsely attributed to its ruler.
