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Duma urges thorough investigation of Russian diplomats' murder

MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian parliament's lower house demanded Wednesday that the Iraqi authorities and coalition forces in Iraq conduct a full investigation into the abduction and murder of Russian diplomats there.

"The tragedy that has happened in Iraq in recent days was possible due to a growing crisis in the country, as the occupying powers there continue to lose control of the situation, while terror and violence have become routine in post-war Iraq," the State Duma said in a statement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Fyodor Zaitsev, 27; Anatoly Smirnov, 32; Rinat Agliulin, 28; and Oleg Fedoseyev, 45; had died serving their country, and showed strength and heroism. The men were kidnapped June 3 in a raid on a Russian Embassy car in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. An Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda subsequently broadcast a tape it said was of three of the men being executed.

The Duma said Russia's predictions regarding Iraq had come true, and that events in the country had proved to be a worst-case scenario.

"The military actions of coalition forces not only do not provide for the restoration of order in the country, but on the contrary provide for the escalation of violence," the statement said. "We believe that they [the coalition forces] could have prevented the tragedy."

On Sunday, Arab television channel Al Jazeera reported referring to an Internet statement made by al-Qaeda in Iraq that terrorists had executed the four men in revenge for what they claimed was "the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.