American journalist Shelly Kittleson has been released, Rubio says
BAGHDAD (AP) — American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped from a Baghdad streetcorner last week, has been released, two Iraqi officials with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.
The development came after the powerful Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement earlier in the day that it had decided to free Kittleson, who was abducted on March 31. Its condition was that that Kittleson must “leave the country immediately” upon her release.
Two officials within the militia, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told The Associated Press that in exchange for freeing Kittleson, several members of the group who had previously been detained by Iraqi authorities would be released.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Typically, the State Department does not confirm the release of Americans abducted abroad until they have been transferred to U.S. government hands or have safely left a country.
In Wisconsin, Kittleson’s mother said she was unsure if her daughter was free.
According to one of the two Iraqi officials, Kittleson was freed in the afternoon. The officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, did not share her current whereabouts but said that prior to her release, Kittleson had been held in Baghdad.
In its statement, Kataib Hezbollah said its decision came “in appreciation of the patriotic stances of the outgoing” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, without giving more details.
It added that “this initiative will not be repeated in the future.”
In Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, Kittleson’s mother told a reporter who knocked on her door that FBI agents were at her home. A number of people could be seen sitting at Barb Kittleson’s kitchen table.
Initially she said that her daughter had not yet been freed, but when a reporter returned later, she said she did not know if her daughter had been released or not.
Caroline Clancy, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Milwaukee field office, declined to comment.
Kataib Hezbollah had not previously acknowledged that it was the one responsible for Kittleson’s abduction, although both U.S. and Iraqi officials had pointed fingers at the group.
Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist, had lived abroad for years before the kidnapping, using Rome as her base for a time and building a respected journalism career across the Middle East.



