An American journalist has reportedly been kidnapped by the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah terror group in Baghdad.
Shelly Kittleson, a freelance reporter covering the Middle East and Afghanistan, was abducted by a group of unidentified men near her hotel in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.
The Iraqi interior ministry confirmed that a ‘foreign journalist was kidnapped by unknown individuals,’ adding that security forces are pursuing the perpetrators.
‘The pursuit resulted in the interception of a vehicle belonging to the kidnappers, which overturned as they attempted to flee,’ the ministry said, confirming that a suspect was arrested.
The journalist was reportedly taken near the Palestine Hotel on Al-Saadoun Street in central Baghdad.
No group has claimed responsibility yet but there are fears Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia could be behind the kidnapping. The terror group also kidnapped Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov in 2023.
Kittleson was not in the vehicle intercepted by Iraqi security forces and her whereabouts are said to be currently unknown.
The US State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but a source said the department is working with the Iraqi government to secure her release.
Shelly Kittleson, a freelance reporter based in the Middle East and Afghanistan , was abducted by a group of unidentified men near her hotel in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday
The journalist has been kidnapped by an armed group in Baghdad, Iraqi officials have confirmed
Police sources said they were still chasing a vehicle in which she was taken by force by four men in civilian clothes.
The search is focused in the eastern part of the capital where the kidnappers’ vehicle was headed, police sources added.
Kittleson, who has written for publications including Al Monitor, Foreign Policy, and The National, has reported across Iraq and the Middle East.
She was in Baghdad to cover the impact of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Kidnappings of journalists in Iraq are often linked to militia activity – a topic she has reported on.
In September, Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov was released after being abducted by Iraq’s pro-Iran faction Kataib Hezbollah.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said her release was the ‘culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months.
‘We reaffirm, once again, that we will not tolerate any compromise in enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, nor will we allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people,’ he said.
Tsurkov disappeared in March 2023 while on a research trip in Baghdad. The Israeli government announced months later that she had been kidnapped by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades.
She had entered Iraq using her Russian passport, ‘at her own initiative pursuant to work on her doctorate and academic research on behalf of Princeton University,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.
Kittleson had been staying in Baghdad to cover the impact of the US-Israeli war on Iran
By November of that year, the group released a video featuring Tsurkov, in which the Israeli-Russian academic claimed she was a Mossad and CIA agent.
But Tsurkov had been an expert on regional affairs in the Middle East – and specifically in war-torn Syria.
Days after her disappearance in March 2023, a local website even reported that an Iranian citizen who was involved in her kidnapping was detained by Iraqi authorities.
It said the woman was kidnapped from Baghdad’s central neighborhood of Karradah and that Iran’s embassy in the Iraqi capital was pressing for the man’s release and to have him deported to Iran.
Some Iraqi activists posted a copy of a passport of an Iranian man at the time, claiming that he was involved in the kidnapping.
Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite group based in Iraq, is a separate group from the Hezbollah movement, an Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
But both groups are closely linked to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and are listed by the US government as terrorist organizations.
