Qatari hunting party kidnapped in 2015 freed: Iraq

Asian Houbara Bustard

A Qatari hunting party kidnapped in southern Iraq in 2015 has been freed and was being handed over to a Qatari delegation in Baghdad on Friday, a senior interior ministry official said.
Sources close to the negotiations said their release was part of a far-reaching regional deal involving the release of prisoners and the evacuation of civilians in neighbouring Syria.
"The interior ministry has received the Qatari hunters, all 26 of them," the minister's adviser, Wahab Al Taee, said. "They will be handed over to the Qatari envoy."
He said the hunters were currently in Baghdad undergoing identity checks by Iraqi officials and would be handed over to a Qatari delegation that has been waiting for them in the capital since last week.
The group of hunters, believed to include several prominent members of the Qatari royal family, were kidnapped in mid-December 2015 during a hunting trip in southern Iraq.
Very little information had surfaced since their kidnapping as to their whereabouts or condition.
"The Qataris are now in (Prime Minister) Haider Al Abadi's office following a deal between Jabhat Al Nusra and the kidnappers," the source said, referring to the former Al Qaeda affiliate now known as Fateh Al Sham Front.
The source said the deal included the evacuation of thousands of people from the northern Syrian villages of Fuaa and Kafraya, which are government-controlled but have been besieged by rebels. The evacuations were under way, with hundreds being taken to Aleppo, which has been under full government control since late last year.