Their vehicle was attacked as they were traveling from Baghdad to the power station, Yevgeny Loginov, Director for International Projects at Interenergoservis, told RBC. According to him, Interenergoservis considers the possibility of evacuating its employees from Iraq.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was taking all possible measures to free the hostages. Employees of the Russian Embassy in Iraq are establishing the details of the incident.

Another Interenergoservis employee, Sergey Brazhnikov, was accidentally wounded by American troops on April 15

On April 12, three Russian and five Ukrainian employees of Interenergoservis were abducted by Iraqi rebels. Armed men broke into a house where the Interenergoservis employees stayed, and kidnapped nine people. They released one of the hostages quickly, and the other eight were also released later. Rebels apologized for the attack.

However, not all hostages were so lucky. An Italian, a German, a Dutchman, and several Americans have been taken hostage and killed by Iraqi rebels. About 50 people have been abducted in Iraq recently.

Immediately after the incident, the Russian Emergency Ministry evacuated 816 people from Iraq, including 553 Russian citizens and 263 citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Emergency Ministry officials stressed that the evacuation was voluntary. But some Russian nationals chose to stay in Iraq, due to high earnings and a friendly attitude to Russians.