Some Palestinian Web sites blocked

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RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 30 (UPI) -- Web sites critical of the Palestinian Authority leadership or providing instructions on how to make bombs have been shut down, a Palestinian official said.

The sites were breaking the law, Palestinian Attorney General Ahmed al-Mughni told The Jerusalem Post.

"Some of the Web sites were blocked for training Palestinians how to manufacture bombs and use them," Mughni said.

Other sites were shut down for making personal attacks against certain people, who were not named, or for security reasons, the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency reported.

Mughni has been responsible for the arrests of a number of Palestinian journalists, bloggers and cartoonists who criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Post said.

Eight of the sites blocked were affiliated with former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, who was expelled from the Fatah months ago for criticizing Abbas, the daily said.

The crackdown on the Web sites caused Mashhour Abu Daka, the Palestinian minister of communications, to submit his resignation last week in protest of their closure. He said shutting down the sites was illegal.

In response to Abu Daka's resignation, the attorney general said any official who wants to resign "should do so quietly" and "not base their decision on illusions, rumors and fabrications."