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 times before her abduction. A contract journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those that knew her as deeply knowledgeable concerning the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street within the Iraqi capital Tuesday and stays 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 didn’t have a press work permit and since security concerns as a consequence of “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace consequently of the war on Iran.”
She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to permit foreign residents stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to achieve their home countries via available transport routes,” he said.
Kittleson entered Baghdad a couple of days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel within the capital, he said.
A street view shows the road corner in central Baghdad’s Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026.
(AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
“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 within the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.
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Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the automobile he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were in a position to escape with the journalist in a second automobile.
An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities consider she is being held in Baghdad and try to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information concerning the abducting party” but declined to offer 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 concerning 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 particular 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 because the night before the kidnapping.
Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard concerning the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.
When asked how she felt concerning the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.”
Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails together with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.
“Journalism is what she desired to accomplish that bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to return home and never do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’”
Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what appears to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching an individual standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a automobile. There appears to be a temporary struggle to shut the automobile door before the boys get into the vehicle and it drives away.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities within the country for the reason that starting of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
© 2026 The Canadian Press