BAGHDAD — Hackers defaced the official website of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, mocking him in language often used by Sunni Arab militants. A news agency in Shiite-dominated Iran said the site was among hundreds that were targeted.
The hacked site at www.sistani contained a statement accusing Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani of issuing “perverse” edicts. Also posted was a YouTube clip showing American comedian Bill Maher joking about an edict on sexual behavior that was allegedly handed down by al-Sistani.
An aide to al-Sistani, who lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said Saturday that the cleric had never issued such an edict. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
“This issue is not new, and our own website has been attacked four times before,” said Ali al-Najafi, son of Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, a leading cleric in Najaf.
The hacked site lists a contact e-mail that includes the words Tora Bora, an apparent reference to the al-Qaeda hideout used by Osama bin Laden, a Sunni Arab, during the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. It said the hacking was carried out by “Group XP” but did not elaborate.
Sunni extremists do not consider Shiites to be true Muslims, and sectarian violence has been intense during the Iraq war.
“Do you think that you are alone on the Internet and no one can attack your Web site?” a statement on the hacked site read. “Today, we are erasing your Web site as we did with many Web sites for the (Shiite) renegades and any other Web sites that offend Sunnis.”
Al-Sistani’s aide said that hackers hit the site Thursday and that the cleric’s office can open a new site, if necessary.
Al-Sistani has used the site mostly to respond to questions from followers, but the hackers have made his comments inaccessible.
Also Saturday, a suicide bomber blew up his car in a field where young men were playing football in the northern city of Tall Afar, killing three and wounding at least 20, a police officer and a hospital official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Police said the dead were policemen taking part in the game.
The explosion happened in a Shiite neighborhood of Tall Afar, where al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups remain active.
In an attack in Baghdad, the head of Iraq’s union of journalists was slightly injured in a bombing at the union’s headquarters.
Mouyyad al-Lami had taken over the job as the head of the union after an earlier chief, Shihab al-Timimi, was shot and killed in an ambush in February. Journalists have frequently been targeted or caught up in attacks in Iraq.
