US journalist kidnapped in Iraq named as Shelly Kittelson; footage shows abduction

An American journalist was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad and Iraqi security forces are pursuing her captors, Iraqi officials said.

The Iraqi interior ministry said in a statement that a foreign journalist had been kidnapped, without giving more details, but Alex Plitsas, who identifies himself as her designated US point of contact in Iraq, names her as Shelly Kittelson and says she was taken captive by the Iran-allied Iraqi terror group Kataib Hezbollah.

Iraqi police sources also told Reuters that the kidnapped journalist was Kittelson, a freelance reporter.

Kataib Hezbollah also kidnapped Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student with Israeli and Russian citizenship who disappeared in Baghdad in 2023. She was freed and handed over to US authorities in September 2025. The group never officially claimed responsibility for kidnapping her.

Al-Hadath TV publishes what it says is footage of the abduction of Kittelson. The footage shows a person being forcibly pushed into a car by two other individuals.

فيديو خاص لـ "الحدث" يوثق لحظة خطف الصحافية الأميركية شيلي كليستون من وسط بغداد

قناة الحدث pic.twitter.com/t38DmkQUko

— الحدث عاجل (@Alhadath_Brk) March 31, 2026

Iraqi security officials tell the Associated Press that two cars were involved in Kittelson’s kidnapping, one of which crashed and was apprehended while being pursued by authorities near the town of Al-Haswa in Babil province southwest of Baghdad, and the journalist was transferred to a second car that fled the scene.

The interior ministry says that security forces had launched an operation to track down the kidnappers, “acting on precise intelligence and through intensive field operations” after intercepting a vehicle belonging to the kidnappers that overturned as they tried to flee.

One suspect was arrested and one of the vehicles used in the kidnapping was seized, but others remain on the loose, the statement says.

A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Baghdad declines to comment.

It is not immediately clear if the kidnapping was related to the ongoing regional war, but Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on US facilities in the country since the beginning of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Since the start of the war, the US embassy has warned of kidnapping risks and urged citizens in the country to leave.