"We must determine the responsibility of the forces that should be keeping order," Anatoly Safonov said. "We openly say that if a state guarantees order, then state structures should bear responsibility, and if it's coalition forces, then they should keep order, and we will be in contact with them."
Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that his country would make every effort to bring to justice the murderers of the four diplomats.
Sergei Lavrov told journalists that efforts were being taken so that "the relatives [of the four men] can receive and bury the bodies of our comrades, and so that the criminals who committed this ghastly crime are found and brought to justice."
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.
