Bahrain says websites attacked before parliamentary election

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain says hackers have targeted websites in the island kingdom just hours before a planned parliamentary election. The Interior Ministry did not identify the websites targeted Saturday, but the country’s state-run Bahrain News Agency could not be reached online, nor could the website for Bahrain’s parliament. Screenshots taken by internet users showed a picture after the hack claiming it was carried out by a previously unknown account called Al-Toufan, or “The Flood” in Arabic. Bahrain is in the midst of a decade-long crackdown on all dissent after the 2011 Arab Spring protests, which saw the island’s Shiite majority and others demanding more political freedom. Shiite activists have called for a boycott of the polls.