Iraqi Qaeda-led group says Russian hostages killed

The Russian Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the website report of the deaths. Picture / Reuters.

DUBAI - An al Qaeda-led group has posted video footage on the internet showing the killing of three men it said were Russian hostages seized in Iraq earlier this month.

The images, posted on a website often used by militants, showed two masked militants beheading of a man and the "execution" of another by shooting. It also showed the beheaded body of a third.

The fate of a fourth hostage was not clear.

"This is the video for carrying out God's ruling against the Russian diplomats which we present to heal the hearts of believers and in revenge for our brothers and sisters for the torture and killing they receive at the hands of the infidel Russian government," the said in a statement posted on the site.

Before the killings, the video, whose authenticity could not be verified, showed four men against a dark red backdrop speaking Russian in statements dated June 13. It did not say when the deaths took place.

In their statements, the bearded men identified themselves and described the nature of their jobs at the Russian mission in Iraq - a third secretary, a cook, a driver and a guard.

The Mujahideen Shura Council defended the killings as an eye-for-an-eye measure, citing a verse of the Koran - Islam's holy book - which says: "Those who assault you, you shall assault with the same (form) of assault."

"Beggar scholars (affiliated with governments) will speak that slaughtering infidels is sacrilegious and so on. We tell them that this is the book of God, which will be the judge," its statement said.

The sister of one of the hostages, in an appeal to the hostage-takers broadcast by Al Jazeera television last week, said that her brother was a Muslim.

The Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's al Qaeda wing, had demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Chechnya and release all Muslim prisoners.

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the report of the deaths.

"At this moment our sources in Iraq have not confirmed the report of the killing of the Russian hostages," ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Ekho Moskvy radio.

"The Foreign Ministry is doing all it can and using all channels to check the validity of this information." The four embassy staff were kidnapped and a fifth was killed when gunmen blocked their vehicle in Baghdad on June 3.

The Mujahideen Shura Council said in an internet posting last week it was holding the four Russians and had decided to kill them after Moscow failed to meet its demands.

- REUTERS