Baghdad — Iraqi officials said that an American journalist was kidnapped on Tuesday in Baghdad, and that Iraqi security forces were pursuing her kidnappers.
The journalist was identified as freelance journalist Shelley Kittelson through one of the outlets she worked for.
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior said in a statement that a foreign journalist was kidnapped, without providing further details about the person’s identity.
Two Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said that the kidnapped journalist is a woman who holds American citizenship.
Shelley Kittleson.
@Shelly Kittelson/X
They added that two cars participated in the kidnapping, one of which crashed and was arrested while being pursued by the authorities near the town of Al-Haswa in Babylon Governorate, southwest of Baghdad. The journalist was transferred to a second car that fled the scene.
The Ministry of Interior said that the security forces launched an operation to track down the kidnappers “based on accurate intelligence information and through extensive field operations” after intercepting a car belonging to the kidnappers that overturned while they were trying to escape.
The statement added that one of the suspects was arrested and one of the vehicles used in the kidnapping was confiscated, while the others are still at large.
The two security sources said that the journalist was kidnapped in central Baghdad on Al-Saadoun Street. She added that an alert had been circulated to all checkpoints to pursue the kidnappers as they headed southwest of Baghdad towards Babil Governorate.
Al-Monitor, a regional news website covering the Middle East, identified the journalist kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad as Kittelson, a freelance journalist who contributed to the publication. Al-Monitor expressed in a statement its “deep concern” about her kidnapping.
“We call for her safe and immediate release,” the statement read. “We support her vital reporting from the region and call for her speedy return to continue her important work.”
Kittelson has been a long-time freelance journalist in the region, reporting extensively from Syria and Iraq.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment.
The US State Department said in a statement that “the Trump administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans,” and that it is “following up these reports.”
“Due to privacy and other considerations, we have nothing further to share at this time,” the statement read.
It was not immediately clear whether the kidnapping was related to the ongoing regional war, but Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have been launching regular attacks on US facilities in the country since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Since the beginning of the war, the US embassy has warned of the dangers of kidnapping and urged citizens in the country to leave.
Iraqi militias also kidnapped foreigners before the war.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a graduate student at Princeton University with dual Israeli and Russian citizenship, disappeared in Baghdad in 2023. After being released and handed over to US authorities in September 2025, she said she was being held by the Iran-allied Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah.
The group did not officially claim responsibility for her kidnapping.
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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Stella Martini in Erbil, Iraq, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
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