{"id":45469,"date":"2026-03-31T19:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/45469\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:35:06","slug":"american-journalist-kidnapped-in-iraq-interior-ministry-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/45469\/","title":{"rendered":"American Journalist Kidnapped In Iraq, Interior Ministry Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAn American journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/iraq\/\" id=\"auto-tag_iraq\" data-tag=\"iraq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iraq<\/a> on Tuesday, the country\u2019s interior ministry said, and authorities were still pursuing the abductors and searching <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tA statement from the Ministry of the Interior provided few details on the incident, and identified only a \u201cforeign journalist.\u201d But Fox News and CBS News identified the reporter as <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/shelly-kittleson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_shelly-kittleson\" data-tag=\"shelly-kittleson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shelly Kittleson<\/a>, a freelancer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAlex Plitsas, a CNN national security analyst, posted on X that he was her point of contact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe wrote, \u201cI can confirm that my friend Shelly Kittleson was abducted and may have taken hostage in Baghdad by Khatib Hezbollah. Whereabouts and condition unknown. I am her designated U.S. point of contact. If you have information please provide to law enforcement and send me a DM.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tKittleson contributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/al-monitor\/\" id=\"auto-tag_al-monitor\" data-tag=\"al-monitor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Al-Monitor<\/a>, Foreign Policy, BBC World Service and Politico, among other publications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn a statement, Al-Monitor said, \u201cWe are deeply alarmed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/kidnapping\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kidnapping\" data-tag=\"kidnapping\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">kidnapping<\/a> of Al-Monitor contributor Shelly Kittleson\u00a0in Iraq on Tuesday. We call for her safe and immediate release.\u00a0We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe Ministry of the Interior said that the journalist \u201cencountered an incident of kidnapping by unknown people, and immediately the specialized security forces dispatched their duties to pursue the criminals, according to accurate intelligence information and an intensive field effort to track the path of the kidnappers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cPursuit and manhunt led to the confining of a kidnappers wheel, leading to it toppling while they tried to escape, where security forces were able to arrest one of the suspects and seize one of the wheels used in the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad Iraq on Tuesday, the country\u2019s interior ministry said, and authorities were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[17146,3505,94,5755,18830],"class_list":{"0":"post-45469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-al-monitor","9":"tag-electionline","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-kidnapping","12":"tag-shelly-kittleson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116325470861504933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}