DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A series of websites linked to the Iranian presidency featured the images of two leaders of an opposition group in exile on Monday, others showing the images of the supreme leader and the president of the Islamic Republic crossed out.
An internet account describing itself as a group of hackers claimed responsibility for the alleged removal of websites. The Ghyam Sarnegouni account, whose name in Farsi means “Rise to Overthrow”, previously claimed responsibility for hacking websites associated with the Iranian Foreign Ministry earlier this month.
Iranian media and officials did not immediately acknowledge the apparent hack. However, Associated Press reporters accessing the sites found them disfigured by images of Massoud Rajavi, the long-lost leader of Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and his wife Maryam, who is now the face group audience.
One site carried the slogan: “Death to Khamenei Raisi – Hail to Rajavi”. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi were both similarly targeted in the previously claimed hack in May.
Iran has been the target of a series of embarrassing hacks amid growing tensions over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme. This includes the targeted Iranian state television signal, gas pumps that provide subsidized fuel targeted in a cyberattack and leaked government surveillance camera footage, including from a notorious prison.
The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, known by the acronym MEK, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The MEK had angrily condemned a prisoner swap between Belgium and Iran on Friday to free an aid worker who saw an Iranian diplomat convicted of masterminding a plot to target the freed group.
The MEK began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He claimed and was suspected of involvement in a series of attacks on US officials in Iran in the 1970s, which the group now denies.
He supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon fell out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and turned against the cleric. He led a series of assassinations and bombings targeting the fledgling Islamic Republic.
The MEK then fled to Iraq and supported dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s. This saw much opposition to the group in Iran. Although largely based in Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.
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