Bahrain investigates 'terrorist' hack of foreign minister's Twitter account

The hack, which purported to be carried out in the name of a fringe militant group, came after Bahraini authorities dissolved the kingdom's last major opposition movement and after police shot dead five protesters while dispersing a long-running sit-in.

Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, a member of the royal family, tweeted he had recovered his account four hours after images of bloodied bodies, demolished mosques and what appeared to be a child's illustration of war rolled down his official Twitter page.

The pictures were captioned: "What the petrodollar media doesn't show you," a reference to the satellite television channels funded by neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Other tweets retweeted from Al-Khalifa’s account called for the end of the monarchy and accused Bahrain and Saudi Arabia of imposing a crackdown on “Shia dissent” within the two Gulf kingdoms.

One of the tweets accused Saudi security forces of setting fire to the car of a Shia activist.

Another tweet retweeted on Al-Khalifa’s account was a video glorifying the late Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, under the hashtag “The Islamic Resistance in Bahrain”.

One tweet that was written directly from Al-Khalifa’s account referred to the three young men sentenced to death by the Bahraini authorities as “martyrs”.

Supporters of the Bahraini monarchy scurried to highlight the attack and urged everyone to report the hacking to Twitter support team.