Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Reportedly Says It Will Free Abducted American Journalist Shelly Kittleson — With a Condition

Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary group holding abducted American journalist Shelly Kittleson reportedly announced Tuesday it would release her on the condition she leave Iraq immediately. The United States Government and representatives for Ms. Kittleson have not confirmed the authenticity of the claim or whether her release is indeed imminent. The announcement, if it comes to fruition, ends a week-long standoff that had put American diplomatic and military pressure on Baghdad and thrown a spotlight on the lethal risks facing freelance journalists working inside a country at the crossroads of a widening regional war.A video featuring Ms. Kittleson in a pink shirt and green blazer emerged on Arabic Telegram channels on Tuesday, in which she looks directly into the camera and admits to working as a spy in the region for more than ten years with different armed factions.A newly released hostage video of Shelly Kittleson. TelegramMs. Kittleson also said that she received “training from Americans” for three months in Syria, and says that she was recently asked to do work of an “intelligence” nature, involving locations of positions amid the “Iraqi occupation.”Ms. Kittleson goes on to emphasize the Trump administration’s “stupid policies” in the region.An Iraqi-American intelligence source, speaking on background before the video was released, predicted that the video – which Ms. Kittleson would be forced to perform in – would be meaningless.“They will likely put out a hit job video against her, which is meaningless because they are liars, nothing less,” the source tells the Sun. “In other words, they will release a video to showcase ‘her activities in Iraq’ probably to lie and say she is CIA and the classical BS.”Shelly Kittleson appears in an undated photo. Via XThis is a tactic consistent with Kataib Hezbollah’s broader disinformation playbook: manufacture a narrative to justify the unjustifiable, then count on the chaos of the news cycle to amplify it.A second Baghdad-based official told the Sun that the statement is believed to be accurate and they are hopeful Ms. Kittleson will be freed.Ms. Kittleson, a freelance journalist who has reported from across the Middle East for several United States and foreign-based outlets, had not been seen or heard from since her abduction on March 31 in Baghdad. She had been strongly warned by American officials not to remain in Iraq, but she insisted on staying.She was seized by four men in civilian clothes near the Palestine Hotel on Saadoun Street, one of the Iraqi capital’s most prominent thoroughfares. Surveillance footage showed her being forced into a waiting car in broad daylight.American journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2025. AP PhotoMs. Kittleson is the first American journalist to be abducted worldwide in over a decade. Her disappearance triggered an international outcry from press freedom organizations and a formal United States government response, though early efforts to secure her freedom ran into a wall of silence from the militia itself.Washington and Baghdad officials believe she had been held in Jurf al-Sakhar, Kataib Hezbollah’s stronghold some 40 miles south of Baghdad, possibly to deter United States airstrikes on militia positions there. The announcement Tuesday that Ms. Kittleson would be freed, conditioned on her permanent departure from Iraq, where she was based, marks the group’s first public acknowledgment of her detention. Ms. Kittleson’s release, when completed, will close one chapter, yet her forced departure underscores how Iraq has become increasingly hostile terrain for American journalists. For those who remain to bear witness to the unfolding conflict, the message from Kataib Hezbollah could not be more chilling. Iraq accounts for 10 percent of the 90 journalists currently missing globally.

Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Reportedly Says It Will Free Abducted American Journalist Shelly Kittleson — With a Condition

More from the New York Sun

Bannon’s High Court Win, After Merrick Garland Sent Him to Prison, Is Milestone in Trump’s Push To Reverse January 6 Convictions

Federal Appeals Court Allows Iowa To Enforce a Law Banning ‘Sexual Materials’ From School Libraries

Russia and China Veto a Proposed UN Resolution on Freedom of Navigation at the Hormuz Strait

Kanye West’s Comeback Suffers a Blow as Britain Bars Him From Headlining London Festival

Vance Headlines Budapest Campaign Rally For Prime Minister Orban

‘Unacceptable’ Penn Station Closure for World Cup Draws Immediate Backlash

As Diplomacy Appears To Have Reached a Dead End, America Strikes at Iran’s Oil Exporting Hub

An Ernst Lubitsch Film Season? ‘Not To Be’ Missed