aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] CBC reporting killing of 4 Russian diplomats in Iraq

["Roman Wynnycky" <rwynnycky@hotmail.com>]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/26/russians-slain.html

Russian Foreign Ministry confirms death of 4 diplomats in Iraq
Last Updated Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:40:22 EDT

Four Russian embassy workers abducted in Baghdad were indeed killed by their 
militant captors, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday.

"It is with deep pain that we report that the seizure of the workers of the 
Russian Embassy in Iraq has, judging by everything, ended in an irremediable 
way despite all efforts taken for the freeing of our people," the ministry 
said in a statement.

The dead men are Fyodor Zaitsev, the third secretary of the Russian Embassy, 
and fellow diplomats Rinat Agliugin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev.

The abductors, claiming to be from the al-Qaeda-linked group called the 
Mujahedeen Shura Council, had vowed to kill the four hostages unless Russia 
agreed to pull its troops out of Chechnya.

The population of the southern Russian region is mainly Muslim, and 
militants have been fighting for independence since the early 1990s.

Video footage posted on an Islamic website on Sunday showed the bodies of 
two men who had been beheaded. In a second clip, a blindfolded man was shot 
in the head. The fourth reported murder was not shown.

"God's verdict has been carried out on the Russian diplomats ... in revenge 
for the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the 
infidel Russian government," said a statement accompanying the video.

The council includes al-Qaeda in Iraq and six other insurgent groups.