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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A cyberattack targeting gas stations in the country on Tuesday Iranianshutting down a government system that manages fuel subsidies, and leaving angry drivers stranded in long queues at closed stations.

Neither group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore similarities to other months that seemed like a direct challenge. IranianSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy is crushed under American sanctions. These economic problems are Iranian They have not yet jointly re-entered the frayed nuclear deal Tehran has with world powers.

State television reported that an unnamed official at the country’s National Security Council acknowledged the cyberattack hours after it aired footage of long lines of cars waiting to fill in Tehran. Associated Press reporters have also seen queues of cars at Tehran gas stations with the pumps turned off and the station closed.

“I’ve been waiting for the gas stations to reopen for a few hours so I can get full,” said one motorcyclist, who gave his name simply as Farzin. “There’s no fuel everywhere I go.”

The semi-official ISNA news agency, which originally called the incident a cyberattack, said those trying to refuel through machines with a government-issued card instead received a message that read “cyberattack 64411”. Most Iranians rely on these subsidies to fuel their vehicles, especially amid the country’s economic problems.

While ISNA does not acknowledge the importance of the number, it is linked to a hotline that runs through Khamenei’s office and deals with questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports, claiming that it had also been hacked. Such hacking allegations can come quickly when Iranian organizations publish news that angers the theocracy.

Persian satellite channels abroad broadcast videos that appeared to have been shot by drivers in Isfahan, a major Iranian city, and there on electronic billboards read: “Hamenei! Where is our gas?” Another said, “Free gas at the Camaran gas station,” referring to the home of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

State television said Oil Ministry officials held an “emergency meeting” to resolve the issue. Some gas stations that only accepted cash and were not part of the subsidy card network continued to pump fuel.

The use of the number “64411” reflected a targeted attack in July. Iranian‘s railway system also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers who named themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra has previously targeted companies in Syria, where President Bashar Assad holds power. Iranian‘ intervention in his country’s grinding war.

Cheap gasoline is practically considered a birthright. IranianDespite decades of economic hardship, it hosts the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves.

The subsidies allow Iranian drivers to buy regular gasoline at 15,000 riyals per liter. That’s 5 cents a liter, or about 20 cents a gallon. After a monthly quota of 60 liters, it costs 30,000 riyals per liter. That’s 10 cents a liter or 41 cents a gallon. According to the AAA, regular gasoline averages 89 cents a liter in the United States, or $3.38 per gallon.

In 2019, Iranian It faced days of mass protests in as many as 100 cities and towns over the rise in gasoline prices. Security forces have arrested thousands of people, and Amnesty International says it believes 304 people were killed under pressure from the government. Tuesday’s cyberattack came in the same month as the gasoline protests of 2019 on the Iranian calendar.

The attack also took place on the birthday of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who died of cancer in 1979, just before the Islamic Revolution.

Iranian It faced a number of cyberattacks in August, including one that leaked video of the abuses at the notorious Evin prison.

After the Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be a US-Israeli joint venture, disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges at the country’s nuclear facilities in the late 2000s, the country has disconnected most of its government infrastructure from the internet.