Azerbaijan:Websites attacked by Iranian hackers

Several official Azerbaijani websites were attacked by alleged Iranian hackers Wednesday night, the communications ministry said Thursday. The homepage of Azerbaijani state television website was replaced with the message "Life is a game. Game over!" by hackers who called themselves "Iranian Cyber Army". The state airline AZAL was also hit by hackers who identified themselves as "Cocaine Warriors from Persia." Azerbaijani officials said the attacks originated from Iran and Azerbaijani hackers had responded by hitting several Iranian sites. Wednesday's attacks came a month after anti-Israeli hackers broke into the websites of several Azerbaijani ministries and the governing party, calling the country's authorities "servants of the Jews." The attacks took place amid tensions between the Azerbaijani and Iranian governments. Tehran accused Baku earlier this month of collaborating with Israel's spy services and helping assassins who have killed Iranian nuclear scientists. The charges were rejected by Azerbaijan as "absurd." The uneasy relations between the two neighbors became more complicated due to the presence of a huge ethnic Azerbaijani minority in Iran.