Qatar royal freed by Iraq kidnappers after four month ordeal
A member of the Qatari royal family and a Pakistani were released by kidnappers in Iraq after nearly four months in captivity, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The pair were among more than 25 people abducted from a desert hunting party near the Saudi border last December. Nine others were able to escape to Kuwait, AFP reported at the time.
Reports of the kidnapping said those seized included members of the ruling family.
The identities of the hunting party remain mostly unclear, but United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in December that children were among those being held.
The ministry initially announced "the release of a Qatari citizen and his Asian companion who were kidnapped in Iraq".
"Efforts are still ongoing to free the rest of the 26 kidnapped," a brief statement published on the official QNA news agency said.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said negotiations were continuing with the Iraqi government to try to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
It is not known if any ransom was paid for the release of the two men freed on Wednesday.
The hostages were abducted when gunmen attacked their camp in a Shia-majority area of southern Iraq.
There is widespread enmity towards the Gulf Arab states in Shia areas of southern and central Iraq because of their support for Sunni rebels in the conflict raging in neighbouring Syria.
The hunting party was in Iraq on an officially licensed expedition and Doha has put pressure on Baghdad to help secure the hostages' release.
Wealthy Gulf Arabs often brave the risks of travel to countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as Iraq to hunt with falcons without the bag limits and conservation measures they face at home.
Their favoured prey is the houbara bustard, a large game bird once nearly hunted to extinction in the Middle East.
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