Iraqi militia says it will free US reporter Kittleson
Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group, said it would release US journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped on a street corner in Baghdad last week.
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 stated that Kittleson should “leave the country immediately” after his release.
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 condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told The Associated Press 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 he was kidnapped, using Rome as a base for a time and building a 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 that they had warned him many times about the threats against him, but he 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 Iran-aligned 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.
The second security official said the Iraqi official in charge of the case had not yet received permission from U.S. officials to continue negotiations, further complicating matters.
U.S. officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US State Department had previously announced that it was working with the FBI to secure Kittleson’s release.
Journalist advocacy groups had called on the US government to officially designate Kittleson as a hostage or “wrongful detainee”; This was a description that triggered a higher level of response.
