Abducted US journalist released by Iraqi armed group, Rubio says

The Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has released abducted American journalist Shelly Kittleson, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.

Officials from the Pentagon, the FBI and the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council were among the people who assisted in securing Kittleson's release, Rubio said in a statement. She was abducted in late March in Baghdad.

"We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq," he added.

Kataib Hezbollah had said earlier on Tuesday that it would release Kittleson and that she must immediately leave Iraq.

Her release follows intensified efforts by the Iraqi government and several influential leaders, who applied pressure on the group to secure her freedom, a government official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Middle East news site Al-Monitor said Kittleson was a US freelance journalist based in Rome who had covered several wars in the region and had contributed articles to the outlet.

A video purporting to show Kittleson was shared by a social media outlet close to Kataib Hezbollah on Tuesday.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, which, if confirmed, would be the first images of Kittleson published since her kidnapping.

In the video, a woman identifying herself as Kittleson appears standing against a plain background, speaking in English directly to the camera. Reuters could not verify when or where it was filmed.

In March 2023, an Israeli-Russian graduate student from Princeton University, Elizabeth Tsurkov, was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah during a research trip to Iraq. She was released in 2025.