Baghdad unveils fate of Israeli researcher kidnapped in Iraq

Shafaq News/ Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said on Thursday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a researcher at Princeton University, is being held by an Iraqi armed group, and Baghdad is working to secure her release.

Hussein told a reporter from the Axios news website that the researcher, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenships and is being held hostage by an Iraqi armed group, "is alive,” adding that the Iraqi prime minister is working to secure her release.

In early July 2023, Israel announced that Tsurkov had been kidnapped in Iraq. However, this Israeli confirmation came months after her abduction, as she is believed to have entered Iraq on a Russian passport before being kidnapped in Baghdad in late March.

Tsurkov, 36, is a doctoral student at Princeton University, and her research in Iraq was focused on political groups, including Iran-aligned factions and the Sadrist Movement. She is fluent in multiple languages, including English, Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic.

In November 2023, a video aired on Al Rabiaa TV showing Tsurkov, where she claimed she had been detained for seven months and had worked for the CIA and Mossad in Iraq and Syria. Her family and friends quickly dismissed these claims, emphasizing that Tsurkov is a scholar focused on academic research.

Human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the Iraqi government to ensure her immediate release.