Kuwait’s state news agency, KUNA, said that its Twitter account was hacked and used to spread false information about the US Troops withdrawing from the country.
During one of the most crucial times of Iran-US clashes, this was one of the earliest high-profile acts of misinformation about the military. KUNA announced on Twitter that its account had been compromised. According to Reuters, the report that now stands deleted states that Kuwait’s defense minister had received a letter from the US saying that the American troops will retract from the Kuwaiti camps within 3 days.
The news agency, in its follow-up tweet, ‘categorically denied’ that such a statement was published on its social media account and that the issue is under investigation by Kuwait’s Ministry of Information.
The hack comes in at one of the most critical moments as the US has already faced confusion about the movement of its troops. Following the killing of Gen. Qassem Suleimani, a letter was circulated stating that the US will retract their military from the Iraqi soil, only for Pentagon officials to claim that it was a draft sent in error.
On the contrary, Iran launched a couple of missiles over the Iraqi airbases on the 8 January 2020 that held the US troops. KUNA is yet to determine how much damage did the cyber breach cause them and hackers behind this incident.