NPR.org defiled by Syrian regime supporters

A group said to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's government pierced the Two-Way, NPR.org and some of NPR's Twitter accounts, the media organization disclosed.

"Late Monday evening, several stories on the NPR website were defaced with headlines and text that said 'Syrian Electronic Army Was Here.' Some of these stories were distributed to and appeared on NPR Member Station websites,” NPR said in a statement.

The hacktivist group tweeted through its own account: "We will not say why we attacked @NPR ... They know the reason and that enough #SEA #Syria."

Another message said "you can ask @deborahamos" for an explanation of the attack.

An NPR journalist explained that his colleague Deborah Amos “has done extensive reporting about the conflict in Syria and in the course of her reports has told of the hard toll the fighting there is taking on the Syrian people.”

The hackers also posted a screenshot of an internal NPR email sent to staff that night, reading: "We are aware that access to our publishing system appears to have been compromised and several stories were hacked. We are taking steps to fix the stories that have been vandalized."