The Twitter and YouTube sites of the military's US Central Command were taken over Monday by hackers claiming to be working on behalf of the Islamic State militants.

American and coalition fighters are launching airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The site was filled with threats that said "American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back." Other postings appeared to list names and phone numbers of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps. The hackers titled the Twitter page "CyberCaliphate" with an underline that said "i love you isis."

Among the messages:

  • "ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base."
  • "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its Cyber Jihad."
  • "We won't stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children."

Some ISIS militant videos were posted on the YouTube site, purporting to show military operations and explosions.

A senior defense official confirmed that the two accounts were compromised and said U.S. Central Command was taking appropriate measures to address the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about it publicly on the record.

They also released what they said was a phone list of retired U.S. generals and other military personnel.

Florida State Representative Jimmie Smith chairs the Veteran and Military Affairs Subcommittee. He said hacking is a way for terrorist groups to probe.

"If we start hacking your computers or start to be known to be hacking your computers is this going to affect you and your policies?" he said. "Can we change the way you do your national things by embarrassing you globally?"

The military suspended the Central Command Twitter site.

However, military officials don't believe the group hacked into classified documents. Experts call the entire incident a publicity stunt.

"For terrorists, every event they do is publicity for them," said Retired USAF Col. Jim Waurishuk. "Whoever put that up there wanted to say we could do it."

Statement from U.S. Central Command

"Earlier today, U.S. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube sites were compromised for approximately 30 minutes.  These sites reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers and both sites have been temporarily taken offline while we look into the incident further. CENTCOM's operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command.  CENTCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible.  We are viewing this purely as a case of cybervandalism. 

"In the meantime, our initial assessment is that no classified information was posted and that none of the information posted came from CENTCOM's server or social media sites.  Additionally, we are notifying appropriate DoD and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of personally identifiable information and will take appropriate steps to ensure any individuals potentially affected are notified as quickly as possible."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.