In protest of the brutal tactics of Syria’s government, members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous have defaced the website of the Middle Eastern country’s Ministry of Defense, causing the site to completely shutdown on Monday.

The group posted the following message on the website:

“To the Syrian people: The world stands with you against the brutal regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Know that time and history are on your side – tyrants use violence because they have nothing else, and the more violent they are, the more fragile they become. We salute your determination to be non-violent in the face of the regime’s brutality, and admire your willingness to pursue justice, not mere revenge. All tyrants will fall, and thanks to your bravery Bashar Al-Assad is next.

“To the Syrian military: You are responsible for protecting the Syrian people, and anyone who orders you to kill women, children, and the elderly deserves to be tried for treason. No outside enemy could do as much damage to Syria as Bashar Al-Assad has done. Defend your country – rise up against the regime! – Anonymous”

Anonymous also replaced the official homepage with one featuring the group’s logo, along with images that link to videos of Syrian police and military brutalities and examples of citizen unrest that continues to enveloped the oppressed country. At the bottom of the page, Anonymous provided links to its various Facebook pages and Twitter profiles.

As The Next Web reports, the source code for the webpage says the URL was “seized for the people by Poppy,” who was presumably the Anonymous member responsible for the defacement, though there has been no official word from any of the official Anoymous outlets that this is the case.

Anonymous, along with its partner in cyber-protest, Lulz Security (LulzSec), have been involved in an increasing number of politically motivated hacks. Just this weekend, members of Anonymous and LulzSec released a 10GB cache of documents that reveal personal information about police officers from more than 50 law-enforcement agencies across the United States.

Entitled “Shooting Sheriffs Saturday,” the data dump contains more than 300 email accounts, police training videos and the identities of individuals who submitted information to authorities via a supposedly anonymous tip system.

The data breach follows the arrest of alleged LulzSec member Jake Davis, 18, by British police, who is said to go by the handle “Topiary.”

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