A militant group led by al Qaeda in Iraq said on Wednesday that it has decided to kill four Russian hostages after Moscow failed to meet demands that it to withdraw from Chechnya and free Muslim prisoners, according to an Internet statement quoted by Reuters. “After granting the Russian government 48 hours to meet our demands and their failure to do so ... the Islamic court of the Mujahideen Shura Council ruled to kill them (hostages),” said the statement posted on a website often used by militants. The Russian diplomats were abducted on June 3, when unidentified gunmen attacked their vehicle in the upscale Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansour. One Russian diplomat was killed in the attack and the other four were abducted.
UPDATE: Also Wednesday, a group linked to al Qaeda in Iraq claimed it has killed four Russian diplomats, according to a statement posted on a Web site. The hostages were killed, the statement said, after Moscow did not meet demands to withdraw troops from Chechnya and "release all our brothers and sisters" from prison within 48 hours. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged the insurgents "not to take an irreparable step and preserve the lives of our men."
The Mujahedeen Shura Council had said in a Monday statement that it was holding four diplomats hostage. But, the Wednesday posting said, "this government didn't care about the diplomats and didn't give their lives any value." Instead, it said, the government merely asked for the release of the hostages "while continuing their fight against Islam and its people."
The Shura Council decided to kill the hostages, the statement said, adding that blood was on the Russian government's hands "and there will be an example for others after them." CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a Web site that frequently has carried messages from insurgent groups.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the diplomats "are representatives of the Russian people, which has never and nowhere waged a war against Islam.
"Russia is a multireligious country, where representatives of its two greatest creeds, the Russian Orthodoxy and Islam, have been living in peace and harmony for centuries," the statement said. One of the abducted diplomats is also a Muslim, the ministry said. "Those who have undertaken this action must also listen to numerous calls of the world's leading Islamic figures demanding the speedy release of the Russian citizens."
The hostages were taken June 3, when a car belonging to the Russian Embassy in Iraq came under fire. Embassy official Vitaly Titov was killed in the attack, and diplomats Fyodor Zaitsev, Rinat Agliugin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev were kidnapped.