American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped from a Baghdad street corner last week, has been released, two Iraqi officials with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday, April 7.
An Associated Press item about the release appeared in the April 8, 2026 issue of the Beloit Daily News. According to the story:
The release occurred after the powerful Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement earlier in the day that it had decided to free Kittleson, who was abducted on March 31. Its condition was that Kittleson must “leave the country immediately” upon her release.
Two officials within the militia, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told The Associated Press that in exchange for freeing Kittleson, several members of the group who had previously been detained by Iraqi authorities would be released.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Typically, the State Depart-ment does not confirm the release of Americans abducted abroad until they have been transferred to U.S. govern-ment hands or have safely left a country.
In Wisconsin, Kittleson’s mother said her daughter was not yet free and declined to comment further. According to one of the two Iraqi officials, Kittleson was freed in the afternoon. The officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, did not share her current whereabouts but said that prior to her release, Kittleson had been held in Baghdad.
In Mount Horeb, Kittleson’s mother told a reporter who knocked on her door that FBI agents were at her home. A number of people could be seen sitting at Barb Kittleson’s kitchen table. Caroline Clancy, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Milwaukee field office, did not immediately respond to an email asking for more information.
Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist, had lived abroad for years before the kidnapping, using Rome as her base for a time and building a respected journalism career across the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Like many freelancers, she often worked on a shoestring budget and without the protections afforded by large news organizations to staff. She had entered Iraq again shortly before her abduction. U.S. officials have said that they warned her multiple times of threats against her, but that she did not want to leave.
According to the officials, a message had been sent to the Kataib leadership to determine their demands in exchange for releasing Kittleson. Iraqi authorities were willing to release six Kataib Hezbollah members who are currently detained, most of them in connection with attacks on a U.S. base in Syria, they said.
On April 8, it was reported by Kiran Nazish, founding director of Coalition for Women in Journalism, that Kittleson had left Iraq entirely following her release from captivity. Nazish said she had not yet spoken to Kittleson and could not confirm her whereabouts, but revealed she is being cared for by U.S. officials.