DOHA: Twenty-six kidnapped men, including members of Qatar’s royal family, were freed on Friday after being held for 16 months in Iraq, Iraq’s interior ministry said.

The men had been handed over to a Qatari delegation and left for Doha, a ministry spokesman said in a statement. It gave no details.

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.