Qatar royals among 26 kidnapped in Iraq

Baghdad - "Twenty-six Qatari hunters were kidnapped at about 3am by unknown gunmen," a police major from Muthanna said.

About 100 gunmen kidnapped at least 26 Qatari hunters in southern Iraq, officials said on Wednesday, the second high-profile abduction of foreigners in the country in three months.
Turkey, which like Qatar is at odds with various Iraqi groups over regional issues, had 18 of its citizens abducted in Iraq in early September. They were eventually released unharmed.
Dozens of gunmen "kidnapped 27 Qatari hunters...when they were in a camp near the Bassiyah area," Faleh Al Zayadi, the governor of Muthanna province where they were seized, said.
"All of those kidnapped are Qatari and a number of members of the ruling family in Qatar are among them," Zayadi said, adding that the kidnappers used more than 50 vehicles mounted with machineguns. Two Iraqi officers providing security for the party were also taken but later released, he said.
Other officials put the number of people kidnapped at 26.
"Twenty-six Qatari hunters were kidnapped at about 3am by unknown gunmen," a police major from Muthanna said.
A local council member from the province gave the same number, saying that the kidnappers were in dozens of pick-up trucks.
Qatar's foreign ministry has contacted the Iraqi government to obtain "details about the kidnapping of the Qatari citizens and to work to release them as quickly as possible", it said in a statement carried by the official QNA news agency.
The hunters entered Iraq with an "official permit" from the interior ministry, the Qatari statement said. - AFP
 

• MENA