The websites of several British media organisations have been hacked in a suspected coordinated attack by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Among those hit were the Daily Telegraph, Independent and Evening Standard, which reported that other news organisations had also been targeted.

The SEA posted on its Twitter feed: “Happy thanks giving, hope you didn’t miss us! The press: Please don’t pretend #ISIS are civilians. #SEA”

“A part of our website run by a third-party was compromised earlier today,” the Telegraph said on its official Twitter feed. “We’ve removed the component. No Telegraph user data was affected.”

Users attempting to access certain parts of the papers’ websites found a message that read “You’ve been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA)” and were then redirected to the group’s logo, an image of an eagle bearing the Syrian flag and a message in Arabic.

The websites of companies such as the New York Times, the BBC and Microsoft have been targeted by the SEA in the past, as have Twitter accounts of other media organisations.

Reuters