DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Hackers stated they’d taken down the web sites of Bahrain’s worldwide airport and state information company on Tuesday to mark the 12-year anniversary of an Arab Spring rebellion within the small Gulf nation.

An announcement posted on-line by a bunch calling itself Al-Toufan, or “The Flood” in Arabic, claimed to have hacked the airport web site, which was unavailable for at the least a half hour in the midst of the day. It additionally claimed to have taken down the web site of the state-run Bahrain Information Company, which was sporadically unavailable.

The group posted photos exhibiting 504 Gateway Timeout Errors, saying the hacking was “in help of the revolution of our oppressed individuals of Bahrain.”

The identical group seems to have hacked and adjusted articles on the web site of Akhbar Al Khaleej, a pro-government newspaper in Bahrain, hours earlier. The newspaper’s web site was nonetheless down Tuesday.

There was no rapid remark from authorities.

Feb. 14, 2011, marked the primary day of protests led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority towards the Sunni monarchy. Bahrain finally quashed the rebellion by drive with the help of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, however has continued to see sporadic unrest through the years.

Authorities have imprisoned Shiite activists, deported others, stripped a whole lot of their citizenship and closed down a number one unbiased newspaper.

The identical shadowy group of hackers focused authorities web sites throughout elections held in November that had been boycotted by a banned Shiite opposition group and others.