Manama: The kidnappers of the Qatari hunters in Iraq have reportedly offered to exchange them for nine fighters — six alive and three dead — of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah being held by the Daesh terror group.

An Iraqi source told London-based daily Al Sharq Al Awsat that the kidnappers were members of the Iran-backed Abu Al Fahdl Al Abbas militia whose members were highly active in Syria and support the regime of President Bashar Al Assad while claiming that they are there to protect Shiite religious sites.

The kidnappers passed on the Qataris to the Iraqi Hezbollah, which has strong links with the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The source who lived in a country neighbouring Iraq but was not identified by the daily said that the kidnappers had requested that the Kuwaiti ambassador to Iraq conduct the negotiations, but demanded the highest levels of secrecy.

Daesh has released a video clip showing the execution of three of the Hezbollah members, and the militia wants to recover their bodies through the negotiations, the daily on Sunday quoted the source as saying.

The Qataris were kidnapped in December after a hunting expedition reportedly consisting of 70 people crossed from Kuwait into Iraq. Nine people escaped the ordeal and returned to Kuwait where they shared the information they had about the kidnapping.

“Armed militias attacked the camp where the party was staying at around 2am and kidnapped all those who were there at the time,” one of the people who survived the kidnapping, said. “They were 32 people and the list included hunters, workers, cooks and helpers. They were transported to an undisclosed location. The other members of the party were not kidnapped because they were away on a night hunting expedition,” the person said.

The hunting expedition was duly licensed by the Iraqi authorities and the tent of the hunting party was among the largest put up by various hunting groups in the area, he added.

Reports in Iraq said the nine people who had been able to cross back into Kuwait were servants and not hunters.

“They were not kidnapped alongside the hunters and they were taken back to Kuwait by the Iraqi authorities,” an Iraqi police source said.

Faleh Al Ziyadi, the governor of Al Muthanna in the south of Iraq, said he had banned all Gulf hunting parties from the area following the kidnapping.

“Military operations with aerial assistance from the army and the police are being conducted to find the kidnapped,” he said. “A security committee headed by the interior minister has been formed to look into the kidnapping and identify the kidnappers and locate them,” he said.

Ahmad Al Abyadh, an Iraqi political analyst, said that if the kidnapped people are not released quickly, they will most likely be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations to secure the release of detainees held by armed factions in Syria.

The presence of Gulf nationals on hunting expeditions using falcons in southern Iraq is a deep-rooted tradition.

Hunting trips up to 2003, the year the regime changed in Iraq, were under the direct supervision of the intelligence services.

However, since 2003, the number of Gulf nationals who crossed into Iraq on hunting trips has dwindled due to security concerns, but expeditions have never entirely stopped.

Gulf hunters regularly purchase falcons from Iraqis in the southern part of the country where several associations breed them and promote hunting.