Islam Times - Qatar Row Caused by Fake News Panted by Russian Hackers: FBI

Islam Times - US officials accused Russian hackers of planting a fake news report in Qatar's state news agency that contributed to a diplomatic row among Washington’s Persian Gulf Arab Allies.

Intelligence gathered by the FBI indicates that Russian hackers were behind the cyber attack on the Qatar News Agency that was first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, CNN reported Wednesday, citing US officials.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected what he called CNN's "fake" reporting.

The FBI recently sent a team of investigators to Doha to help the Qatari government investigate the alleged hacking incident, according to the news network, citing US and Qatari officials.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told CNN the FBI has confirmed the hack and the planting of fake news.

Late last month, Qatar’s state-run news agency released comments attributed to Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in which he described Iran as a force for stability and accused the Saudis of promoting extremism.

Faced with the backlash, the Qatari government was quick to claim that hackers had broken into the QNA website and published the “fake news."

However Saudi Arabia denied Qatar's claim that Tamim's remarks were fake news and harshly reacted by severing its diplomatic ties with Doha. Further Riyadh imposed an all-out transport blockade on its neighbor and urged other Arab states to take the same steps.

Fifteen nations, including Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, and Jordan, have severed or downgraded diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar after accusing the Persian Gulf kingdom of supporting terrorism, by wich they meant Muslim Brotherhood as well as Hamas.