Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was sending his country's special forces into Iraq to hunt down the militants who killed four Russian hostages last week.
'The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals who killed Russian diplomats in Iraq,' the Kremlin press service said.
Putin also said that Russia 'will be grateful to all its friends for any information on the criminals,' according to the Kremlin statement.
Putin's statement did not specify exactly what the Russian leader meant by 'special forces.' This could be an intelligence operation led by the Foreign Intelligence Service and/or the Federal Security Service which is the main successor to the KGB.
The Russian Duma (parliament) released a statement saying it 'deplores the death of our compatriots ... expresses profound indignation over the fact of their brutal murder and strongly denounces the criminals, who committed that heinous crime.'
However, the Duma went on to blame the United States and it's coalition allies for the situation, saying that because 'of the deepening crisis in Iraq, while the occupying countries are losing control over the situation, and terror and violence are becoming the order of the day in that country.'
The Russian special forces face long odds in finding the insurgents responsible for the murder of their compatriots and bringing them to justice.
