Israel says Israeli-Russian Mideast analyst held by radical Shiite militia in Iraq

An Israeli-Russian citizen is being held by a radical Shiite militia in Iraq, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.

Elizabeth Tsurkov has been missing for several months, with her last post on Twitter dating back to March. The PMO says Tsurkov is being held by Kataeb Hezbollah, a paramilitary group backed by Iran. It says she is alive and that the government “views Iraq as responsible for her fate and safety.”

The PMO says Tsurkov, an academic, was visiting Iraq using her Russian passport for work on behalf of Princeton University.

Tsurkov is a doctoral student in political science at Princeton. She is a respected analyst on Syria and the Middle East in general.

#BREAKING: Israeli PM office: Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov kidnapped in Baghdad by a shia militia: "she is alive – Iraq is responsible for her safty" pic.twitter.com/4BCoC951fk

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 5, 2023

She has two degrees in international relations and Middle East studies from Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University.

Tsurkov is a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank, whose website notes that “her research is based primarily on a large network of contacts she has cultivated across the Middle East and particularly in Syria, as well as fieldwork across the region.”