Russia admits captured diplomats in Iraq likely dead
26/06/2006 20:00 MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said that four diplomats captured earlier this month in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, had likely been executed.
Russian diplomat Vitaly Titov was killed during the attack June 3 on an embassy car in the capital of Iraq. The kidnappers seized Fyodor Zaitsev, third secretary of the embassy, and also diplomats Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev.
"It is with great pain that we announce that the irremediable has apparently happened to the captured employees of the Russian embassy in Iraq, despite all the measures that were taken to free our people," a ministry statement said Monday.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that there had been no absolute proof provided that the four had died, although Arab television channel Al Jazeera reported Sunday, referring to an Internet statement made by al-Qaeda in Iraq, that terrorists had executed the men in revenge for what they claimed was "the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.
The ministry also called Monday for the Iraqi leadership and the international coalition forces in Iraq to take all possible measures to ensure the killers be brought to justice.
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