Translated material
Al-Qaeda victims
Terrorists claim Russians have been killed
Yesterday at about 17:00 Moscow time, alarming news appeared on the English-language website of CNN. The al-Qaeda-linked Iraqi organization Majlis Shura al-Mujahidin (Mujahideen Advisory Council), which previously claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of four Russian embassy employees in Iraq, reported the killing of captured Russians. We are talking about the third secretary of the embassy, Fyodor Zaitsev, and embassy employees Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseev.Almost simultaneously, a Russian diplomatic source told Interfax that Moscow does not give up hope that the Russian embassy employees taken hostage in Baghdad are alive, and is taking all measures to ensure that they are released without causing them harm. The Russian Embassy in Baghdad, citing Iraqi competent authorities, did not confirm reports that appeared last night “in some Western media” about the unfavorable development of the situation around the Russian hostages.
Earlier, Reuters and France Press distributed information that appeared on one of the Islamist websites on the Internet. It said that the “Islamic court” of the mentioned organization “decided to execute the hostages after the expiration of 48 hours allotted to the Russian government to satisfy our demands and their non-fulfillment.” This information, judging by the ITAR-TASS report, was also duplicated on the Internet by the parent group of the Mujahideen Advisory Council - Al-Qaeda and Jihad in Iraq."
Let us recall that on June 3, a car with five employees of the Russian embassy was blocked and fired upon by militants in Al-Mansur, a western district of Baghdad. The militant attack took place 400 meters from the diplomatic mission building. Embassy security officer Vitaly Titov was killed, and the four survivors were taken away by the attackers. For almost two weeks, no one took responsibility for this daring action. The extremists did not make contact and did not make any demands regarding the hostages. But this Monday, the terrorists made themselves known and presented an ultimatum to Russia, demanding the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya and “the release of all Muslim brothers and sisters from prison.”
After reports of the “verdict” appeared, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry called on the invaders to “prevent the irreparable and save the lives of our people” and “listen to the numerous calls of the highest authorities of the Islamic world, insisting on the speedy release of Russian citizens.” “We are talking about representatives of the Russian people, who have never waged a war against Islam anywhere,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. - Russia is a multi-religious country in which representatives of two great religions - Orthodoxy and Islam - have lived in peace and harmony for centuries. One of the Russian citizens held hostage is a Muslim.”
Yesterday afternoon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said encouraging words at a press conference in Moscow: “We are constantly dealing with the situation with Russian hostages in Iraq, information is coming in, coming in regularly. But we are not going to share it, make it public, because the main thing now is not to harm the efforts that are being made to search and rescue our citizens.” Earlier, Sergei Lavrov also called for the release of Russians “without causing them harm.”
CNN reported yesterday's information with the caveat that it could not independently verify the authenticity of the message online. However, he confirmed that the website used by the terrorists constantly disseminates various kinds of statements by Iraqi militants. Earlier, the Vremya Novostey newspaper reported on assumptions made by knowledgeable Russian sources of our newspaper that groups associated with Al-Qaeda were behind the attack on Russians.
The sinister Mujahideen Consultative Council, often referred to as the coordinating body of the insurgency in Iraq, is only an umbrella for the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, created by its leader, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Americans destroyed the terrorist on June 7, but his place was immediately taken by the Egyptian Abu Hamza al-Muhajir (aka Abu al-Misri), who had already brutally dealt with two young American soldiers captured by his militants.
The situation could have been simpler if the Russians had fallen into the hands of ordinary bandits with whom today's Iraq is infested - at least they can be bought off. Yes, and we could try to carry out explanatory work with patriotic fighters against the American occupation, recalling that Russia strongly opposed the US forceful action in 2003.
But al-Qaeda, which has killed thousands of innocent people, does not need ransoms. And she is absolutely indifferent to the fate of the people of Iraq. Under the banner of all-out war against the “enemies of Allah,” these forces are ready for any bloodshed, believing that the massacre of hostages serves as a strong warning to anyone they consider infidels.