DUBAI, July 27: The group of Al Qaeda’s Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has executed two Algerian diplomats kidnapped last week, an internet statement said on Wednesday, in the latest killings of Arab envoys in Iraq.

Following swiftly after the killing of Egypt’s top envoy Ihab al-Sharif earlier this month, the double executions appear to be the latest bid by insurgents to push Arab countries out of Iraq and punish their support for the government.

“Your brothers in the military branch of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers on Wednesday July 27 applied the verdict of the Islamic tribunal,” said a statement published on an Islamic website whose authenticity could not be verified.

“The head of the diplomatic mission, Ali Belaroussi, and the attache Azzedine Belkadi were therefore killed,” the group said. Armed gunmen seized the two diplomats as they were leaving the embassy in Baghdad by car last week.—AFP