US journalist recounts kidnapping in Iraq, details eight-day captivity

Wisconsin journalist Shelly Kittleson has described being kidnapped and held captive for eight days in Iraq earlier this year, in a detailed first-person account published in The Atlantic on April 23.

Kittleson says she was abducted on March 31 in Baghdad by armed men, restrained with zip ties and blindfolded, foreign media reports.

“I remember screaming, though I don’t know what words I screamed,” she wrote. “And I remember resisting, though there was little I could do in heels against two military-trained men intent on shoving me into the back seat of their vehicle.”

She added that she was warned during the abduction: “I was told that I would be killed if I made any noise.”

During captivity, she said she suffered injuries and was moved between locations. “I was in excruciating pain from what I later learned were several broken ribs, but I tried not to cry out,” she wrote. At one point, she recalled a captor saying, “‘But she’s a woman,’ this man said. He felt, or I imagined he felt, a touch of shame or pity.”

Kittleson also described what she called a staged interrogation and forced video recording, saying: “I was in no condition to refuse, if I wanted to live. And I did.”

She was released on April 8 and later transferred to U.S. officials for medical care after being taken through Iraqi authorities.

Reflecting on her work, she wrote: “Many important stories in Iraq deserve the attention of experienced journalists who know the country well, and who care deeply about it.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev