Iraqi parliamentarian Hamed Al Matalk expressed his astonishment over the success of Iraqi government to release the Qatari fishermen kidnapped by extremists in Iraq through holding negotiations with them, saying that the Iraqi government ignores thousands of citizens inside the prisons controlled by the armed groups. He revealed that over two thousand citizens are existed in the prisons of extremists in Anbar Governorate, saying that they have been kidnapped during the military operation witnessed in the province in 2015.

He added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, that he talked with Iraq’s prime minister about those kidnapped citizens, saying that the Iraqi official failed to take any serious measures to release them. He expressed his astonishment over the participation of the Iraqi troops in the operations to release the Qatari kidnapped fishermen. He accused the Iraqi government of holding a deal with the extremist groups to release the Qatari kidnapped fishermen, while ignores hundreds of Iraqi citizens existed in the prisons of extremists.

The Iraqi parliamentarian called the Iraqi government for mediating with the armed groups to release the kidnapped Iraqi citizens supposed to be under its protection, saying that the government should work to protect its citizens and to provide them with security. He added that the Iraqi government managed to perform this role for the Qatari government, while failed to do the same to protect its citizens.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said, in a statement, that Twenty-six hostages, including Qatar ruling family members, were freed on Friday after being held for 16 months by unidentified gunmen in Iraq. According to sources, the men were freed and handed over to Iraq's interior ministry but gave no further details on the release of the hostages, who were seized in December 2015 while on a hunting trip near the border with Saudi Arabia.

An Iraqi security official said Iraq was verifying the identity of the men and would hand them over to Qatar's ambassador to Baghdad. About 100 armed men seized the group of Qatari hunters, which included royal family members and also other nationals, from a desert camp for falcon hunters in southern Iraq. A Qatari royal and a Pakistani man were later freed.