As the Iran/US ceasefire collapsed last night, brave Iranian students humiliated the dictatorship in Tehran by taking over more than 600 government-controlled university websites. The regime of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has made no appearance at week-long funeral rallies for his father Ali Khamenei, backing claims he has been seriously injured in a US air strike, came under fire from American missiles which rained down on 80 strategic sites early this morning.
At today's NATO summit in Turkey, President Trump announced the US-Iran ceasefire was "over" and added: "I don't want to deal with them anymore, they're scum. They're sick people, they're led by sick people... As far as I'm concerned, it's over."
Student Hackers Target Regime Sites
At almost the same time, students supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) triggered their own raids on the websites. Sites belonging to state-run K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, and the University of Isfahan were hit as hackers replaced front pages with slogans celebrating the Iranian resistance. The slogans included: "Death to the ruthless King Mojtaba", "Curse be upon the bloodthirsty Khomeini", "Curse be upon the tyrant Khamenei", and "Long Live Rajavi" (referring to Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran). Pictures of Maryam Rajavi and Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, were also posted on the websites.
Any student found to have been involved with the hacking would likely face imprisonment, torture, and even death at the hands of the regime's Revolutionary Guard. Communication into and out of Iran has been extremely difficult since an effective shutdown of the internet by the government in the wake of the January street uprising, which saw a death toll of up to 7,000 according to human rights organizations.
Students Defy Internet Blackout
But the students managed to get an email directly to Express.co.uk explaining the hack and stating: "Honoring the students martyred by the dictatorship of the clerical regime. At the same time as Khamenei's burial and in memory of the student uprising in the 9th and 10th of July 1999: Today Wednesday, July 8, 2026, freedom-seeking rebel students defaced more than 600 sites at 4 universities. We seek to shatter the endless cycle of kings and clerics in Iran's history. Let's break through the heavens and build something entirely new."
Islamic Azad (Free) University was also hit by the hackers and while technically not a government university, it is still very closely regulated. It operates under Iranian law and is subject to oversight by government authorities and higher education regulators. A site affiliated to Azad University (VADANA - a Persian acronym for Iranian online learning and virtual education platform) also acknowledged that it has been hacked by students supporting the PMOI/MEK. A significant network of dissident students is believed to have been involved in the action.
US Airstrikes and Regional Fallout
Meanwhile, the US military said last night's wave of missile strikes was a response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz in a "clear violation of the ceasefire". NATO chief Mark Rutte called the American strikes "absolutely necessary". But Iran's IRGC launched counter-strikes against Bahrain and Kuwait, which the foreign ministry of neighbouring Qatar says were a "blatant breach" of international law and the two countries' sovereignty.
