Abducted US journalist released by Iraqi armed group, Rubio says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Ms Shelly Kittleson, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad, in a location given as Damascus in this image obtained from social media released on Dec 29, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BAGHDAD – Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has released abducted American journalist Shelly Kittleson, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on April 7.
Officials from the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council were among the people who assisted in securing her release, he added in a statement.
She was abducted in late March in Baghdad.
“We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq,” he said.
Kataib Hezbollah said on April 7 it would release Ms Kittleson and that she must immediately leave Iraq.
Her release follows intensified efforts by the Iraqi government and several influential Shi’ite leaders, who applied pressure on the militia group to secure her freedom, a government official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Middle East news site Al-Monitor said she was a freelance journalist based in Rome who covered several wars in the region and contributed articles to the outlet.
A video purporting to show her was shared by a social media outlet close to Kataib Hezbollah on April 7.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, which if confirmed would be the first images of Ms Kittleson published since her kidnapping.
In the video, a woman identifying herself as Ms Kittleson appears standing against a plain background, speaking in English directly to the camera. Reuters could not verify when or where it was filmed.
In March 2023, an Israeli-Russian graduate student from Princeton University, Ms Elizabeth Tsurkov, was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah militia during a research trip to Iraq. She was released in 2025. REUTERS
