Qatari citizens held hostage in Iraq by unidentified gunmen since 2015 have been freed and handed over to the Iraqi interior ministry on Friday.
The satellite channel gave no further details on the release of the hostages, who were seized by gunmen in December 2015 while on a hunting trip near the border with Saudi Arabia.
An Iraqi security official later said Iraq would hand over the 26 hostages to Qatar's ambassador to Baghdad.
In December 2015 about 100 armed men seized a hunting party, including Qataris and other nationals, from a desert camp in southern Iraq. A Qatari royal and a Pakistani man were later freed.
The release of the remaining hostages comes days after a deal was announced for the evacuation of civilians and fighters from four besieged Syrian towns. Britain’s Guardian newspaper said Qatar had helped mediate the deal in exchange for the freeing of the hunters.
The abduction led to months of negotiations between Iran, Qatar and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, according to an Arab diplomat in Doha.
Discussions about the Syria evacuations, involving Iranian officials and Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, were held in Qatar when Iran’s foreign minister visited on March 8, according to the diplomat. Those discussions tied the deal to the freeing of the Qatari hostages, he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the hunters. They were seized in a largely desolate expanse of territory close to the Saudi border which is dominated by militias who work closely with neighbouring Iran and have accused Doha of meddling in Iraq’s affairs.
