Azernews.Az

Iran has no bearing on Monday’s hacker attacks on Azerbaijan's government websites, and reports to that end damage relations between the two countries, Iranian embassy spokesman Abbas Isgandari told the Baku-based Trend news agency.

A group of hackers calling themselves Azerian Cyber Army attacked the websites of the interior ministry, the communications ministry, the state customs committee, the council for state support to NGOs under the President, and the education ministry. Also attacked were the sites of the Constitutional Court, the ruling Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party (YAP), Trend and AzerTAj state news agency.

On the hacked websites the intruders posted critical remarks about Azerbaijan-Israel relations.

The same day, several websites in Israel -- including the sites of the El Al airline and the Tel Aviv stock exchange -- were attacked.

Though the source of the attack has not been officially reported, some in Azerbaijan believe it could have been carried out by Iran.

In retaliation, Azerbaijani hackers crashed over 20 Iranian websites, including those of government agencies, and warned they would continue attacking Iranian websites.

Deputy Communications and IT Minister Elmir Valizada said earlier that the ministry was investigating the cyber-attacks on Azerbaijani websites and would take action based on international practices.

Head of Azerbaijan Internet Forum, Osman Gunduz, warned that "a cyber-war" has been declared on Azerbaijan, saying the country may come under a threat of "a total crash of its cyber-space".