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Kidnapped Journalist Warned of Threats 04/01 06:22
BAGHDAD (AP) -- An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had
tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially
turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of
threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist
who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria, Kittleson was kidnapped from a
street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.
Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said
Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9
but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because
security concerns due to "the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over
Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran."
She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq
valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring
countries to "transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available
transport routes," he said.
Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was
staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.
"The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence
agencies under the supervision of" al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one
suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is
being interrogated.
Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect
after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape
with the journalist in a second car.
An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being
held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said
authorities "have information about the abducting party" but declined to give
more details.
U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an
Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of
foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government
has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation.
The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction,
Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific
kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.
Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on
X Tuesday that the "State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this
individual of threats against them."
A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to comment publicly, said, "She was contacted multiple times with
warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the
kidnapping.
Surveillance footage that was obtained by The Associated Press shows what
seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad. It shows two
men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person
into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car
door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S.
facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
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