A hacker claiming to be a member of vigilante hacker group YIHAT (Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism) defaced 13 websites on Monday night, but his actions were condemned by the group's leader, Kim 'Kimble' Schmitz.

The internet entrepreneur and convicted hacker said that defacements were against the policies of the group. "We don't want anybody to deface websites. Anybody defacing websites in the name of YIHAT is working against our rules," he said.

The 13 targets appear to be randomly chosen, including sites such as chat-world.com and connectedu.com, running either Linux or some form of the BSD operating system.

All the sites were defaced with a uniform page featuring the YIHAT logo and the group's mission statement: "Kill the money sources of terror." A note in the source code of the defaced pages attributes the defacements to 'RaFa', a hacker formerly belonging to the notorious World of Hell group.

Although it is unconfirmed whether RaFa is indeed a member of YIHAT, the group has distanced itself from the attacks.

According to Schmitz, the purpose of YIHAT is only to gather information on terrorist related activities. "Do not destroy any data on any system. If you destroyed anything by accident, fix it. Protect the internet. Cracking is prohibited. Stop defacing websites," he said.

The YIHAT website went live earlier this week, urging talented hackers to join its ranks.

Two weeks ago, UK members of the group claimed to have uncovered bank accounts belonging to Osama bin Laden and turned the details over to the FBI. The FBI has neither confirmed nor denied this information.