What's the purpose of elite caravans in the desert

Near Valencia I often encountered a group of people with camels (look like traders to me). On radar they appear as elite attack-able NPCs. I sometimes see them travel around deep desert also. Print below.

What is their purpose? Can they be attacked (I didn't try since a group of over 10 elites may be difficult to kill and have no idea if it worth)? If yes do they drop anything interesting and does attacking them lower your karma / upset guards?

Solution 1:

They drop an extremely rare ring piece, you'll need five of these pieces to make a merchant ring which increases your bidding chance in the marketplace by +10%, keep in mind if you don't want to go red in the desert you will need two people to take the mobs 50/50, but with two people you should be able to kill them just fine

Solution 2:

From what I hear, they will drop trade items when you kill them.

I'm also told that killing them incurs a large karma loss.