Kataib Hezbollah held Elizabeth Tsurkov for 903 days – torturing and sexually assaulting her – before Trump got her out.
Now they have another American.
What Kataib Hezbollah does with Americans next – Tsurkov spent 903 days learning the answer.
Shelly Kittleson Was on a Kataib Hezbollah Kidnap List
American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson was snatched off Saadoun Street in central Baghdad on Tuesday evening by men with ties to the Iran-backed terrorist militia Kataib Hezbollah.
The U.S. Embassy issued a security alert on March 29 – two days before her kidnapping – warning Americans that Iran-aligned militias may specifically attempt to take hostages.
A U.S. official confirmed she was warned multiple times about a specific plot to kidnap or kill her, including as late as Monday night.
Sources confirmed her name was on a list in Kataib Hezbollah's possession.
She stayed anyway.
https://twitter.com/Almanassa_news/status/2039369877450874934?s=20
State Department Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson confirmed the kidnapping and stated exactly what the government had done: "The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them."
Iraq remains at a Level 4 Travel Advisory – the highest level – with the official guidance telling Americans to leave immediately.
One suspect linked to Kataib Hezbollah has been arrested.
Iraqi security forces chased a second vehicle southwest toward Babil province.
That car crashed near the town of Al-Haswa. But Kittleson wasn't in the wreckage.
She had already been transferred to a second getaway vehicle.
Kataib Hezbollah Held the Last Hostage for 903 Days
Kataib Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, funded and trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The White House documents that between 2003 and 2011, Iran-backed militias – including Kataib Hezbollah – killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq, roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.
They didn't stop when American soldiers left.
In January 2024, a Kataib Hezbollah drone killed three U.S. servicemembers at the Tower 22 base in Jordan and wounded more than 40 others.
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2039020316161142789?s=20
Since Operation Epic Fury – the joint U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran launched February 28 – Iran-backed militias have attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, struck the Camp Victory base with a drone, and launched more than 100 claimed attacks on American facilities across Iraq.
The Elizabeth Tsurkov case is the template for what comes next.
Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student, was snatched from a Baghdad café in March 2023.
Kataib Hezbollah held her for 903 days.
She later described being tortured and sexually assaulted throughout her captivity.
Trump secured her release through a U.S.-brokered deal in September 2025 – after Biden spent two and a half years getting nowhere.
This is not a group that releases hostages quickly or cheaply.
Iran Proxy in Iraq Killed 603 Americans and the Iraqi Government Still Funds It
Kataib Hezbollah is not a rogue street gang operating in the shadows.
It controls three brigades inside Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces – an official security institution of the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi government is partly financing the same militia that just kidnapped an American citizen.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies confirmed that between October 2023 and February 2024, Iran-backed militias carried out more than 200 claimed attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria.
Biden's response was limited strikes on mid-level figures. The network survived intact.
The Biden administration projected weakness, and the Islamic Republic's proxies concluded they could target Americans with impunity.
Trump changed that calculus.
Since Operation Epic Fury began, U.S. airstrikes have killed Kataib Hezbollah's security commander and spokesperson.
The National Interest confirmed that targeting senior militia leadership pushed the group to agree to a temporary ceasefire in mid-March.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2039028773765419018?s=20
But Kataib Hezbollah's own ceasefire conditions told you everything – they demanded the U.S. stop hitting "residential areas," which is code for the leadership hideouts where they hide behind civilian cover.
A pause is not a defeat.
Iran built this proxy network over 40 years specifically to survive military pressure and continue asymmetric warfare against American interests.
The Trump administration has no higher priority than recovering Shelly Kittleson. That is their stated position and they mean it.
But Iran built this proxy network for exactly this moment – to hold American lives as leverage while negotiations over its nuclear program continue in the background.
Trump is simultaneously bombing Iran and talking to Iran. Kataib Hezbollah just handed Tehran a bargaining chip.
Watch how long it takes Baghdad to admit it can't control the militia it's been financing.
Sources:
- Dylan Johnson, "Statement on Kidnapping of American Journalist," U.S. Department of State, March 31, 2026.
- "The Iranian Regime's Decades of Terrorism Against American Citizens," White House, March 2026.
- Bridget Toomey, "Strikes Continue Hitting Iran-Backed Iraqi Militias," Foundation for Defense of Democracies, March 20, 2026.
- "Iran's Iraqi Militias Are Coming for US Troops," The National Interest, March 2026.
- "Iraq Travel Advisory," U.S. Department of State, travel.state.gov, 2026.
- "American Journalist Shelly Kittleson Kidnapped in Baghdad," Washington Examiner, March 31, 2026.