26 Qataris kidnapped, said to be members of royal family

About 100 gunmen kidnapped at least 26 Qatari nationals from a hunting ground in a desert are not far from the Saudi border early on Wednesday morning, Reuters quotes a regional governor and police officials as saying.

“An armed group driving dozens of pickup trucks kidnapped at least 26 Qatari hunters from their camp in the area of Busaya in Samawa desert near Saudi borders,” Samawa governor Falih al-Zayady is quoted as saying.

A local police official, unnamed by Reuters, is quoted as saying: “We are talking about at least 100 gunmen armed with light and medium weapons broke into the Qatari camp and abducted the hunters at around 3 am local time on Wednesday.”

Some reports say the kidnapped are members of the family of the emir of Qatar, the oil fiefdom’s ruler.

26 hunters from #Qatar kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the Samawah desert in southern #Iraq. Reports of royal family member among kidnapped.

— H. Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) December 16, 2015