An American journalist was kidnapped on Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. The journalist was identified as freelancer Shelly Kittleson by one of the outlets she worked for.
Kittleson is from Monticello, Wisconsin, less than two hours southwest of Milwaukee. TMJ4 spoke with her mother, Barbara, Tuesday night, who said the FBI had just been to her house and had promised they were looking into the reports.
Barbara said Shelly had messaged and sent her photos on Monday, and that she was fine at that time.
A U.S. official blamed the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, the Iraqi interior ministry confirmed a foreign journalist had been kidnapped.
Two Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the kidnapped journalist is a woman and a U.S. citizen.
They said that two cars were involved in the kidnapping, one of which crashed while being pursued near the town of Al-Haswa in Babil province southwest of Baghdad. The journalist was then transferred to a second car that fled the scene.
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