Four russian spies killed in Iraq

An Iraqi Mujahideen group posted a web video showing the execution of three of the four Russian spy “embassy workers” captured earlier this month in Iraq.

 

The one and a half-minute video, posted on a website that frequently airs messages from such groups, showed two blindfolded men beheaded and the shooting of a third man.

 

An accompanying statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation linking seven groups, said all four Russians spies were executed.

 

“God’s verdict has been carried out on the Russian diplomats… in revenge for the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government,” the statement said.

 

The group had demanded that Russia pull out its troops from Chechnya and release all Muslim hostages.

 

“We present the implementation of Allah’s rule against the Russian diplomats to comfort the believers,” said the statement posted by the Mujahedeen Shura (consultative) Council in Iraq.   

 

“It is also in revenge for our brothers and sisters and what they suffer of torture, killing and displacement by the infidel Russian government,” it added.    

 

A picture attached to the statement showed two masked men dressed in black standing behind a kneeling Russian spy. Another picture showed another handcuffed Russian spy lying on the ground, but it was not clear whether he had been executed or not.    

 

The Mujahideen alliance said on Wednesday that its Islamic court had ruled that the four diplomats should be executed after Moscow failed to heed a 48-hour ultimatum to pull out of Chechnya and free Muslim prisoners from Russian jails.

 

The four Russians spies were captured on June 3 after an attack on their car in Baghdad’s Mansour neighbourhood.

 

A fifth Russian was killed in the incident.

 

The web posting showed the four men appear on camera, one at a time, staring ahead and speaking in Russian. Then the camera cuts to the executions.

 

The men speaking into the camera is dated June 13, but the footage of the killings is undated.