Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and U.S. President Donald Trump introduced Tuesday (September 9, 2025) the discharge of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023.
While Iraq stated a “group of outlaws” kidnapped Ms. Tsurkov, Trump introduced she was released by the highly effective pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.
“As a culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months, we announce the release of the Russian citizen, Elizabeth Tsurkov,” Sudani stated on X.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Ms. Tsurkov “was just released” by Kataeb Hezbollah “after being tortured for many months” and was now on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Sabah al-Numan, the navy spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, stated later in an announcement that “following extensive and high-level security and intelligence efforts… authorities succeeded, on September 9, in locating and reaching the site of her detention.”
Ms. Tsurkov was delivered to the U.S. embassy to “facilitate her reunion with her sister, a U.S. citizen,” he added.
The former captive’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, thanked Trump, his particular envoy Adam Boehler, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and the non-profit group Global Reach for his or her roles in securing the discharge. “My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days,” she posted on social media
Numan stated Ms. Tsurkov was kidnapped by a “group of outlaws” with out naming any get together and added that Iraq’s safety forces “will continue to pursue all those involved in this crime and ensure they are held accountable.”
Phd candidate
Ms. Tsurkov, a doctoral pupil at Princeton University and fellow on the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, went lacking in Iraq in March 2023.
She had probably entered Iraq on her Russian passport and had travelled to the nation as a part of her doctoral research.
She was energetic on Twitter, the place she has tens of hundreds of followers and describes herself as “passionate about human rights”.
In Baghdad, she had targeted on pro-Iran factions and the motion of Iraqi Shiite chief Moqtada Sadr as a part of her analysis on the area.
She was kidnapped as she was leaving a restaurant in the Iraqi capital’s Karrada neighbourhood, an Iraqi intelligence supply advised AFP in 2023.
Israeli authorities blamed Kataeb Hezbollah for her disappearance, however the group implied that it was not concerned.
Kataeb Hezbollah?
Kataeb Hezbollah didn’t declare in 2023 the kidnapping, however a supply in the group advised AFP Tuesday (September 9, 2025) Ms. Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any “conflicts”.
She “was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting,” the supply stated.
“She was released and not liberated. No military operation was carried out to free her,” the supply added.
Like different armed teams skilled by Iran through the conflict in opposition to the Islamic State group (IS), Kataeb Hezbollah have been built-in into the common safety forces as a part of the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation pressure (PMF).
However, the faction has developed a fame for generally appearing by itself.
The group and different Iran-backed Iraqi factions have been calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq at Baghdad’s invitation as a part of the anti-IS coalition.
U.S. forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria have been repeatedly focused by Kataeb Hezbollah and different pro-Iran teams following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October 2023.
They have responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the assaults have halted.
The U.S. and Iraq have introduced that the anti-IS coalition would finish its decade-long navy mission in federal Iraq in 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan area in the nation’s north.
