Saudi hacks Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s website

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry says a Saudi Arabian individual has hacked its website, putting offensive, sectarian-charged content on it.

Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal announced the news on Saturday, saying the ministry staff were trying to fix the problem, according to the country’s Arabic-language al-Sumaria TV network.

The cyber-attack came only a day after Iraq’s Foreign Ministry reacted harshly to earlier remarks by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who had said Baghdad should not recruit Iraqi volunteer fighters known as al-Hashad al-Sha’bi or Popular Mobilization Units in its pending push to liberate the northern city of Mosul from the Takfiri terror group of Daesh.

The fighters have proven a pivotal force in extricating the country from the clutches of the terrorists, who have been ravaging it since 2014.

The ministry called the remarks void of any value and not even worthy of Baghdad’s attention.

After closing in on the city for several months, Iraqi forces on Thursday started to take positions for the ultimate push to free it. Daesh has declared the city its so-called headquarters in Iraq.

Also, in a unilateral move, Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its ambassador to Baghdad Thamer al-Sabhan, naming Abdulaziz al-Shammari as the kingdom’s chargé d’affaires at its diplomatic mission in the Iraqi capital.

The move is regarded as a unilateral downgrading of ties not yet recognized by the Iraqi government.