Shelly Kittleson was abducted by an Iran-backed militia and released after Iraqi officials reportedly agreed to free detained militia members in a prisoner exchange.<\/p>\n
An American journalist abducted in Baghdad by Iraqi militia allied with Iran was freed on Tuesday after a week in captivity, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the militia and two Iraqi security officials.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rubio confirmed the release of the journalist Shelly Kittleson on a social media post Tuesday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are relieved that this American is now free,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
I am pleased to announce the release of American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was recently kidnapped by members of the foreign terrorist organization Kata\u2019ib Hizballah near Baghdad, Iraq.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of State extends its appreciation to the Federal Bureau of\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014 Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Rubio also thanked the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council and \u201cIraqi partners\u201d for securing the journalists\u2019 release. He stated, \u201cThis resolution reflects the Trump Administration\u2019s steadfast commitment to the safety and security of American citizens, no matter where they are in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n The militia, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement that it had released Ms. Kittleson \u201cin appreciation of the patriotic positions\u201d of Iraq\u2019s prime minister, who had been negotiating for her release.<\/p>\n \u201cThis initiative will not be repeated in the future,\u201d a security commander from the group, who is known as Abu Mujahid Al-Asaf, said in the statement. \u201cWe are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded.\u201d<\/p>\n The group said Ms. Kittleson must \u201cleave Iraq immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militias in Iraq, is closely tied to Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n The abduction of Ms. Kittleson, 49, marks the group\u2019s second kidnapping of a foreigner in Iraq. In 2023, the militia abducted Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian doctoral student<\/a>, and held her hostage for more than two years, torturing her while in captivity.<\/p>\n Ms. Kittleson, the journalist who has covered the Middle East for more than a decade for multiple news outlets, was released in exchange for several imprisoned members of Kataib Hezbollah, according to two Iraqi security officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations publicly.<\/p>\n Iraq\u2019s security forces, along with the U.S. government, worked to secure her release. A day after the abduction, Kataib Hezbollah signaled it was willing to negotiate the journalist\u2019s freedom if the Iraqi government agreed to free several detained members of the militia.<\/p>\n Kataib Hezbollah has been among the Iraqi militias leading retaliatory attacks tied to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The group has carried out near-missile strikes<\/a> against U.S. targets in Iraq and across the region, including missile attacks it says targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.<\/p>\n The militia is considered one of the hardest-line and most influential Iranian proxies operating in Iraq. Years of repeated attacks on U.S. Army positions in Iraq and Syria helped prompt Washington to designate the group a foreign terrorist organization in 2009.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Kataib Hezbollah shared a heavily edited video of Ms. Kittleson on social media in which she says she passed information about militias in Iraq to an American diplomat. Rights groups and international law experts say hostage videos are inherently made under duress, with statements often coerced, and that producing such recordings can constitute a war crime.<\/p>\n Ms. Kittleson is known for \u201cher courageous reporting from war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,\u201d according to Al-Monitor, where she is a contributor.<\/p>\n