At least 26 Qatari hunters including royal family members have been kidnapped by gunmen while out hunting in a desert area of southern Iraq after their armed guard abandoned them.
They were snatched from their camp near Samawah province, 230 miles from Baghdad.
The raid was carried out at around 3am this morning, said the area’s governor, Faleh al-Zayadi, adding that around 100 kidnappers on 50 machine gun mounted SUVs launched the attack.
A Samawa police colonel told news agency the hunters were being escorted by an Iraqi security detail but that it decided not to fight the large group of gunmen.
‘We are talking about at least 100 gunmen armed with light and medium weapons who broke into the Qatari camp and abducted the hunters,’ the police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
