Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov deplored on Tuesday the death of four Russian diplomats who were killed by their abductors in Iraq, saying the killing is an "irreplaceable loss" for Russia.

"We have suffered an irreplaceable loss. Our comrades, personnel of the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, fell victim to the raging of merciless terrorism in Iraq," Lavrov said at a meeting of Russian ambassadors, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

On Monday, the Foreign Ministry confirmed the deaths of the four diplomats who had been kidnapped on June 3 in Baghdad. A day earlier, the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization grouping several insurgent groups in Iraq including the al-Qaida terror network, said in an Internet statement that it had killed the Russians.

"We demand that the Iraqi leadership and the command of the coalition forces do everything possible to ensure that none of the criminals involved in the murder of our citizens escapes punishment," the ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.

"Coalition forces are responsible for the safety of diplomatic missions in Iraq," the statement said.

Itar-Tass also quoted a diplomatic source as saying that the UN Security Council was planning to adopt a special chairman's statement in connection with the death of the Russian diplomats in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua