MOSCOW, July 23: The deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons drew a muted and even critical response in Russia, one of the most outspoken opponents of the invasion.

“This situation will lead to new casualties among the coalition forces and the civilian population of Iraq,” the chairman of the Russian Duma parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Mikhail Margelov, said in Moscow.

The violent deaths of Uday and Qusay were further proof that a political solution in Iraq was still a remote prospect, he said.

Konstantin Kossachyov, the chief international politics expert of the Kremlin-loyal Russian Unity Party, said the incident was “equally beyond the bounds of international law as the overall American action in Iraq”.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow, meanwhile, said that there were no plans to include Russian troops in the peacekeeping force in Iraq. —dpa