Saudi Arabian women having affairs with Islamic State fighters exposed by anti-Isis hackers

An anti-Islamic State (Isis) hacking group has managed to infiltrate the emails of IS fighters to expose the love affairs between them and women supporting their cause.

The Saudi-based group, Cyber of Emotion, launched its campaign against IS supporters in Saudi Arabia by revealing the identities of IS online users in an attempt to stop extremist ideas spreading into Saudi society.

Cyber of Emotion also found when it hacked into the email accounts of several extremists that a number were having affairs with local women who were supporting its cause. It discovered "love emails" to the militants and also revealed to the Saudi Gazette that the majority of IS supporters in Saudi are actually women.

"In a Daesh [IS] commander's inbox we found love emails he exchanged with one of his female supporters," the hackers told Al-Watan.

"We targeted them specifically to try to stop their dangerous and deviant ideas from spreading in Saudi society. Young men who never travelled abroad were involved in most of the terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. They were recruited online through internet and social media," the group's leader said.

Isis uses fake social media

Cyber of Emotion revealed IS uses fake social media accounts – in particular on Twitter – to enhance its presence by filling them with hashtags popular with young Saudi men about the country's affairs in order to lure new members.

It said: "We identified a large number of these accounts and after close monitoring we found out their disgraceful intentions. Our main goal is to attack these accounts and expose those who hide behind them."

The hacking group began its anti-IS campaign on 28 September and despite already receiving a reported number of death threats from the militants, it says it will continue with its cause.