Iran-Backed Militia Releases American Journalist Kidnapped In Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — American journalist Shelly Kittlesonwho was Kidnapped from Baghdad street corner He was released last week, an Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Kittleson was released in the afternoon because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He did not share his current whereabouts but said he was being held in Baghdad before being released.

Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group, said in a statement earlier in the day that it had decided to release Kittleson, who was kidnapped on March 31.

The group said its decision was taken in recognition of the patriotic stances of “outgoing prime minister” Mohammed Shiite al-Sudani, but did not provide further details. He added that “this attempt will not be repeated in the future.”

The statement also added the condition that Kittleson “must leave the country immediately” after his release.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kataib Hezbollah has not previously acknowledged that it was responsible for Kittleson’s kidnapping, but both U.S. and Iraqi officials have pointed fingers at the group.

Two officials from the militia, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told the AP that in exchange for Kittleson’s release, several members of the group previously detained by Iraqi authorities would also be released.

Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist, had lived abroad for years before his abduction, briefly using Rome as a base and building a respected journalism career in the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Syria. Like many freelancers, he often worked on a shoestring budget and without the protections afforded to staff by major news organizations.

He had re-entered Iraq shortly before his kidnapping. US officials said they warned him He said that he was threatened many times but did not want to leave.

Iraqi officials said two vehicles were involved in the kidnapping, one of which crashed while being pursued near the town of Al-Haswa in Babil province, southwest of Baghdad. The journalist was then put into a second vehicle that fled the scene.

Attempts to negotiate his release have run into obstacles, three Iraqi officials said early Tuesday.

Two Iraqi security officials and an official from the pro-Iran Coordination Framework political bloc spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive case.

An official from the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iran-backed militias nominally under the control of the Iraqi military, was tasked with communicating with the kidnappers to secure Kittleson’s release, but ran into difficulties communicating with Kataib Hezbollah leadership, one of the security officials said.

“The main difficulty is that the leaders of the Kataib militia, especially their battalion commanders, are nowhere to be found. No one knows their whereabouts and the process of contacting them is extremely complicated,” they said. “These leaders went underground, maintaining no active lines of communication, for fear of being targeted.”

The political official said that a message was sent to the Kataib leadership to determine their demands in exchange for the release of the kidnapped journalist. Iraqi authorities have said they are willing to release six Kataib Hezbollah members, most of whom are currently detained in connection with attacks on a US base in Syria.

Kataib Hezbollah has been accused of kidnapping foreigners before.

Elizabeth TsurkovA Princeton graduate student with Israeli and Russian citizenship disappeared in Baghdad in 2023. He said he was detained by Kataib Hezbollah after he was released and handed over to US authorities in September 2025.

The group never officially claimed responsibility for kidnapping him.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have also launched regular attacks on US facilities in the country since the start of the war. US-Israel war against Iran.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.