Washington : Pro-Syria hackers broke into the internet recruiting site for the US Marine Corps, posting a message that urged US soldiers to refuse orders if Washington decides to attack Syria.
The site, www.marines.com, was paralysed for several hours Monday and redirected to a seven-sentence message “delivered by SEA” — short for the Syrian Electronic Army.
The SEA is a hacker group that claimed responsibility for disrupting the New York Times, social networking website Twitter and others media websites, Xinhua reported.
The hackers posted six pictures showing people holding hand-written messages, including one that read “I will not fight for Al Qaida in Syria”, referring to the rebels fighting government troops in Syria.
The SEA told US troops that the Syrian army was their ally rather than an enemy in fighting the common enemy of terrorism.
US Marine Corps spokesman Eric Flanagan said no information was put at risk in the hacking. The recruiting site is on a commercial network rather than the Pentagon’s network.
The US government has decided to launch a limited strike on Syria over its the alleged use of chemical weapons Aug 21, which the US claims killed 1,429 people, including 426 children.
President Barack Obama, however, said he will seek Congressional authorisation before going ahead with the military action.