American Journalist Shelly Kittleson Abducted in Iraq

Shelly Kittleson — an American journalist reporting from Baghdad — has been abducted … Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced Tuesday.

The government department announced a foreign journalist was abducted by “unknown people” … and The National, a publication based in the United Arab Emirates which covers the Middle East, confirmed with sources that Kittleson was the journalist taken.

Kittleson, who has reported from the Middle East for the BBC, Politico, and other major publications, was taken in Baghdad. She was reportedly near the Palestine Hotel on Al-Saadoun Street in the central part of the city when she was taken.

The publication Al-Arabiya has shared video footage allegedly of Kittleson’s kidnapping … which seems to show a car pulling up to speak to an individual on the street. Two men on foot then grab this person and force them into the car before it speeds away.

Kittleson had been reporting in Syria recently, according to reports. She reshared a post on X Monday regarding Spain closing its airspace to U.S. planes involved in an attack on Iran.

On March 2, the United States’ State Department warned Americans not to travel to Iraq and urged those already in the country to leave immediately due to “terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and the U.S. government’s limited ability to provide emergency services.”