Anonymous launched a sustained distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that knocked Interpol's public-facing website offline for several hours Tuesday.

Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous apparently took credit for the attacks via the AnonOps Twitter channel, which has served as a reliable source of Anonymous information. "Tango Down >> Free International Anons!" read one tweet, while another said, "Tango Down II 404 Interpol, #Anonymous is not a criminal organization."

The DDoS attacks were in retaliation for Interpol Tuesday announcing that it had coordinated the arrests of 25 people in four European and Latin American countries for alleged illegal activities conducted under the Anonymous banner. The alleged hackers were all between the ages of 17 and 40, and as part of the investigation, Interpol also seized 250 pieces of IT equipment and mobile phones, as well as credit and debit cards, and cash.

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