Iraqi Terrorist Organization Frees Kidnapped American Journalist Shelly Kittleson

The Iranian-backed terrorist group Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq has released American journalist Shelly Kittleson on Tuesday, one week after she was kidnapped in broad daylight.

Reuters correspondent Tala Ramadan reported the news, adding that Kittleson is being ordered to leave Iraq immediately. The New York Times reported about 30 minutes later that Kittleson had been freed.

The terrorist group said it released Kittleson “in appreciation of the patriotic positions” of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, who had been negotiating for her release, according to the Times report.

“This initiative will not be repeated in the future,” a security commander for the group said in a statement, according to the Times. “We are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded.”

The update comes after Kittleson was abducted in central Baghdad on March 31. Footage of Kittleson being shoved into a car by two men during the middle of the day was played on a local news station and quickly circulated on X afterwards.

U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs Dylan Johnson said last week the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.” Another unnamed U.S. official told the New York Post Kittleson was contacted several times about threats against her, including the night before she was abducted.

Kataib Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed Shia Islamist group with close ties to Hezbollah in Lebananon; it was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in 2009.

Kittleson is a Middle East-focused freelance reporter who has published stories for the BBC, Al-Monitor, and Politico, among other outlets. Her X account shows her current location as Iraq, and her most recent activity before being kidnapped was sharing a Reuters post about Spain closing its airspace to U.S. planes involved in attacks against Iran.

Her most recent story was published earlier this year in The New Arab, examining the relationship between the Syrian government and its Kurdish minority. The Wisconsin native said in 2017 that reporting from war-torn countries has “clearly given me a purpose in life, to a certain extent. It has also given me nightmares at times.”

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