Killing of Russian diplomats cannot be confirmed : Lavrov

Moscow, June 26 (UNI) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today said the killing of Russian diplomats taken hostages in Iraq ''cannot be confirmed''.

''We saw the videotape. The material is old and dated mid-June.

We are not certain the people killed are our people,''he said in an interview on Ren-TV, referring to the video released by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group incorporating al-Qaeda in Iraq, which showed one man being beheaded and another shot-dead, as well as the body of a third, while there was no sign of the fourth hostage.

In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry also said there was no confirmation of the killing of Russian diplomats, who were kidnapped in Baghdad by unidentified gunmen on June 3.

''The Information and Press Department has not received any new information,'' the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin said adding, ''Our sources in Baghdad cannot confirm reports about the murder of the Russian hostages.'' Mr Kamynin pointed out that the Foreign Ministry and the Russian embassy in Iraq, making use of all available channels and opportunities, were working to establish whether the reports were authentic.

Reacting on the reported killing of diplomats, first deputy chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky said if the information was confirmed, Russia will respond adequately.

''We doubt the authenticity of broadcasted video material allegedly proving the death of hostages. Should information on their death be confirmed, Russia will respond adequately," he said, adding any action would be directed against terrorists, rather than against Iraq or its citizens,'' Mr Slutsky told Interfax news agency.

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