Jihadists have beheaded the Russian Embassy workers they kidnapped earlier this month. They filmed the beheadings, of course, and the film is available for viewing on the internet.

BBC

The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group incorporating al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an internet video and a statement announcing their deaths.

The video showed one man being beheaded and another shot dead, as well as the body of a third, but there was no sign of the fourth hostage.

The Kremlin said it could not immediately confirm their deaths.

“At this moment our sources in Iraq have not confirmed the report of the killing of the Russian hostages,” a government spokesman Moscow radio.

“The Foreign Ministry is doing all it can and using all channels to check the validity of this information.”

The men were seized in Baghdad on 3 June, and kidnappers said the executions were in revenge for “torture, killing and displacement by the infidel Russian government” in Chechnya.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, which said it was holding the men, had threatened to kill them if Russia did not pull its troops out of Chechnya.

The Russian captives included the embassy’s third secretary, Fyodor Zaitsev, and three other staffers: Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev. A fifth Russian was killed during the incident in which they were taken captive.

ABC

An accompanying statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization linking seven insurgent groups including al-Qaida in Iraq, said all four Russians had been killed.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had not yet confirmed the hostages’ deaths.

The 90-second video, posted on an Islamic Web site that frequently airs militant messages, showed the beheading of two blindfolded men and the shooting of a third.

In the footage, two men clad in black and wearing black ski masks shout “God is great!” before beheading the first man. Then one militant appears standing over the decapitated body of a second victim lying in a pool of blood, with the head placed on top of the body.

The footage of the beheading victims shows a closed room with white walls. The shooting appears outdoors in what looked like an alley between buildings.

The footage was stamped with the logo of al-Qaida.

“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 video begins with a verse from the Quran appearing in white letters on a black screen, and a voice reading “Those who aggress on you, you aggress on them.”

One at a time, the four men appear on camera, staring ahead and speaking in Russian. Then the camera cuts to the killings.

The al-Quada emblem on the top right of the screen reads: ‘There is no god but Allah.’

For those who feel if the United States just backed out of this war and everything would just be ‘back to normal’ again (whatever back to normal means), you might want to take note of this. These are not Americans and the jihadists didn’t even claim it was the fault of the United States. They blamed Russia for their actions on this one.

They are at war with the Western world. I don’t know what is so difficult to understand about that.

It is outrageous. When will we get so tired of the actions of these monsters that we are willing to put a stop to it?

BTW - this is the same group that took credit for this.

It just makes me sick.

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For more on the beheadings and good insights: Michelle Malkin, Darleen’s Place (she peeked and there are actually ppl blaming Bush for this!), Wizbang, Gateway Pundit, Riehl’s World View, Pink Flamingo, Paxalles, Small Town Veteran, Sneakeasy Joint, Conservative Blog Therapy, Howies, Sierra Faith, Webloggin, Planck’s Constant, Blogs of War, Urban Underground, Old Controller

Hot Air has the video - but paraphrasing Michelle Malkin, don’t look unless you are ready to look the devil in the eye. This is the enemy.

Reuters