| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russian Diplomats Executed
// Ultimatum Not Met
The Mujahedeen Shura Council terrorist group has announced that the four Russian diplomats kidnapped in Baghdad on June 3 have been executed. The terrorists demanded on Monday that Moscow withdraw its forces from Chechnya and free all Muslim prisoners within 48 hours. Russian authorities refused to meet those demands and urged the terrorists to free their captives. The American television news network CNN reported yesterday that the terrorists carried out their threat instead after their deadline passed. The networked based its report on information found on an Islamist website.
The Russians were kidnapped at gunpoint 400 meters from the Russian embassy in Baghdad. Valery Titov, a guard, was killed in the incident. The fate of the hostages, third secretary of the diplomatic mission Fedor Zaitsev and embassy employees Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseev, remained unknown for several days, contrary to the usual practices of Iraqi kidnappers. American special services say that the Mujahedeen Shura Council is an umbrella group uniting about ten extremist organizations and lacking any well-defined hierarchy or structure. This was the group's first action.
Representative of the Chechen separatist government Akhmed Zakaev distanced himself from the group's actions and said that the entire incident was a “FSB provocation” intended to connect Chechnya with international terrorism on the eve of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. The Russian Foreign Ministry made exhaustive attempts to free the captives, calling on the leaders of Arab states, the Islamic Conference and even Arab media to assist it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was “a true friend of the Iraqi people” and called the kidnappings “simply unjust.” Moscow also called the terrorists' demands intentionally impracticable.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called for the sparing of the diplomats' lives again after the announcement of their execution. “We are talking about representatives of the Russian people, who have never waged war against Islam anywhere. One of the Russian citizens in captivity is a Muslim,” official representative of the foreign ministry Mikhail Kamynin said yesterday.
The diplomats are not the first victims of Iraqi kidnappers. Interenergoservis employees were taken hostage several times in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. They were usually released unharmed and unconditionally, although three persons died during those kidnappings. Interenergoservis finally withdrew from Iraq.
Alexander Reutov
All the Article in Russian as of June 22, 2006
|
|
|
