BAGHDAD (AP) \u2014 An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday. <\/p>\n
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.<\/p>\n
Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to \u201cthe escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to \u201ctransit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of\u201d al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.<\/p>\n
Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car. <\/p>\n
An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities \u201chave information about the abducting party\u201d but declined to give more details.<\/p>\n
U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers\u2019 affiliation.<\/p>\n
The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson\u2019s abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.<\/p>\n
Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the \u201cState Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, \u201cShe was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her,\u201d including as late as the night before the kidnapping.<\/p>\n
Kittleson\u2019s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, \u201cTerrible. Scared. I\u2019ll pray for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJournalism is what she wanted to do so bad,\u201d Barb Kittleson said. \u201cI wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, \u2018I\u2019m helping people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.<\/p>\n