Hackers in Turkey have attacked more than 5,000 Swedish Web sites in the past week, and at least some of the sabotage appears linked to a Swedish newspaper's publication of a disparaging caricature of Islam's prophet, an Internet company and a media watchdog said Sunday.
Around 1,600 Web sites hosted by server-provider Proinet and 3,800 sites hosted by another company have been targeted, Proinet spokesman Kjetil Jensen said.
Jensen said the hackers, operating on a Turkish network, removed all files on the Web sites and in some cases replaced them with messages.
According to Swedish news agency TT, the Web site of a children's cartoon called Bamse was replaced by a message saying Islam's holy prophet had been insulted. The incidents have been reported to the police.
