BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped at least 26 Qatari hunters in southern Iraq, officials said on Wednesday, the second high-profile abduction of foreigners in the country in three months.
Turkey, which like Qatar is at odds with various Iraqi groups over regional issues, had 18 of its citizens abducted in Iraq in early September. They were eventually released unharmed. Dozens of gunmen "kidnapped 27 Qatari hunters... when they were in a camp near the Bassiyah area," Faleh al-Zayadi, the governor of Muthanna province where they were seized, told AFP.
"All of those kidnapped are Qatari and a number of members of the ruling family in Qatar are among them," Zayadi said, adding that the kidnappers used more than 50 vehicles mounted with machineguns. Two Iraqi officers providing security for the party were also taken but later released, he said.
Other officials put the number of people kidnapped at 26. "Twenty-six Qatari hunters were kidnapped at about 3:00 am (0000 GMT) by unknown gunmen," a police major from Muthanna said. A local council member from the province gave the same number, saying that the kidnappers were in dozens of pick-up trucks.
Qatar's foreign ministry has contacted the Iraqi government to obtain "details about the kidnapping of the Qatari citizens and to work to release them as quickly as possible", it said in a statement carried by the official QNA news agency. Assistant Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Mohammed al-Rumaihi, has been dispatched to Baghdad to coordinate with Iraqi authorities "to ensure the safety of the Qatari nationals", it said.
The hunters entered Iraq with an "official permit" from the interior ministry, the Qatari statement said.
Wealthy citizens of Gulf states venture to countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq to hunt with falcons without the bag limits and conservation measures restricting the killing of certain species that they face at home. There is significant hostility in Iraq over the Gulf countries' policies on the Syrian civil war and perceived complicity in the rise of the Islamic State group.
Qatar, which has financially backed rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is especially reviled on this front.
Iraqi militia groups, which have a major presence in Shia areas of Iraq including the south, have sent members to Syria to fight alongside Assad's regime.
The kidnappings come a little over three months after gunmen seized 18 Turks in Baghdad. Turkey, like Qatar, has close ties to Syrian rebel groups and is accused by some of not doing enough to combat IS.
The Turkish workers were later freed unharmed, two of them in the southern province of Basra and the other 16 on the road to Karbala, also south of Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces clashed with fighters from the powerful Ketaeb Hezbollah militia during the search for the kidnapped Turks.
Baghdad turned to mostly Shia volunteer forces for support as IS advanced towards the capital in June 2014. Those groups have played a key role in halting and then reversing the militants' gains. In doing so, the government empowered Shia militias, some with chequered human rights records, and spurred the creation of new ones, allowing them to act with near impunity despite the fact that officially they fall under government command.
from the sea were taking place on the Red Sea port city of Hodaida, while ground forces carried out attacks on Taiz city in southwestern Yemen and air strikes by the Arab coalition had not stopped.
"We will not stay hand-tied but we will respond strongly towards the breaches that are taking place by the alliance and their mercenaries," Luqman said.
The Hadi-run sabanew.net news agency said five loyalist fighters and three civilians were killed in Houthi shelling in the central city of Taiz shortly after the ceasefire began. Asseri said earlier the alliance was committed to the ceasefire but was ready to respond to any violation by the Houthis, according to the Saudi al-Riyadh daily.
In one positive sign, tribal and military sources said that loyalists and the rebels were expected to exchange hundreds of captured fighters on Wednesday following weeks of mediation.
Mokhtar al-Rabbash, a member of the prisoners' affairs committee, which is close to the government, said an agreement was in place to swap 375 rebel detainees for 285 pro-Hadi fighters. There was no immediate confirmation from the rebels. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Sanaa, which was involved in a previous prisoner swap, said the organisation was "not aware of such an exchange".
The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has called the truce "a critical first step towards building a lasting peace in the country".
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, said that the alliance's leadership "realises that this is an important and crucial phase to find a peaceful solution, but has a military commitment to respond to violations."
The coalition launched an air war against the rebels in March after they forced Hadi to flee the country, and has also sent in ground troops.
On Wednesday, military sources reported mortar and gunfire by rebels in several parts of the besieged provincial capital of Taez.
Pro-Hadi forces also attacked rebel positions in the city, a military source said.
Fighting was also reported in Marib province east of the capital.
On Tuesday, just hours after the truce came into effect, rebel artillery and tanks killed seven civilians and wounded 15 in residential areas of Taez, witnesses and medics said.
Rebels also killed 17 loyalist fighters and wounded 20 in Marib, a military source said.
Hadi has said he wants a seven-day truce to coincide with the peace talks and to be "renewed automatically if the other party commits to it," the coalition said.
Little news has emerged from the talks in Switzerland which are being held at an undisclosed location and for an indefinite period of time.
UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters on Tuesday that 12 negotiators and six advisers made up each of the two delegations taking part in the talks.
"These consultations seek to establish a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, secure improvements to the humanitarian situation and a return to a peaceful and orderly political transition," he said.
A ceasefire is much-needed in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest nation, where the UN says an estimated 80 percent of the population requires humanitarian aid.
The World Health Organization representative in Yemen, Ahmed Shadoul, said the agency had received assurances that its staff were free to distribute medical supplies while the truce holds.
More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen - about half of them civilians - and more than 27,000 wounded since March, according to the UN.