Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday night that Iran-backed Shiite militants in Iraq have released captive American journalist Shelly Kittleson.
French President Emmanuel Macron also announced that two of his citizens have been freed after “three and a half years of detention in Iran.”
Kittleson was abducted off the streets of Baghdad, Iraq, on the evening of March 31, 2026. Her captors managed to elude Iraqi police in a high-speed chase, but one suspect was taken into custody and linked to Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), the most powerful of the Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in Iraq.
Rubio said on Tuesday that KH was indeed behind Kittleson’s abduction. He thanked the FBI, Department of War, and “U.S. personnel across multiple agencies” for securing her release, along with the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council and other “Iraqi partners.”
“This resolution reflects the Trump Administration’s steadfast commitment to the safety and security of American citizens, no matter where they are in the world,” Rubio said.
“Under President Trump, the wrongful detention or kidnapping of U.S. nationals will not be tolerated. We will continue to use every tool to bring Americans home and to hold accountable those responsible,” he added.
Rubio said the administration is working to ensure Kittleson’s “safe departure from Iraq.” She was in the country at the time of her abduction despite several warnings from the State Department that it was unsafe for her to remain, especially since KH and other groups loyal to Iran were reportedly making “kidnap or kill” lists of American targets.
Al Jazeera News quoted KH officials who said they traded Kittleson for several members of their group detained by the Iraqi government for plotting attacks against American interests in the Middle East. The officials added that Kittleson’s release was conditioned on her agreeing to “leave the country immediately.”
KH released a public statement praising the “patriotic stances of the outgoing” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, but did not specify exactly what Sudani did to make the prisoner swap happen. The statement was the first official admission by the Iranian proxy force that it was responsible for Kittleson’s abduction.
Sudani, who has been in office since 2022, technically holds the prime minister’s seat in a caretaker capacity until a new government can be formed, which explains why KH referred to him as “outgoing.” He has been critical of U.S. strikes against Iranian proxies like KH on Iraqi soil, which might well be the “patriotic stance” KH praised.
KH security official Abu Mujahid al-Assaf hastened to add that Kittleson’s release did not mean a new era of harmony was beginning in Iraq.
“This initiative will not be repeated again in the coming days. We are in a state of war resembling that imposed by the American enemy against Islam, and in such situations, many considerations are set aside,” he said.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron thanked Oman for helping to secure the release of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris from captivity in Iran, where they have been imprisoned since May 2022.
Kohler, 41, and Paris, 72, are schoolteachers and romantic partners who were arrested during a tourist trip to Iran in May 2022. They were thrown into Iran’s horrific Evin prison, slapped with highly dubious charges of “espionage,” and sentenced to two decades in prison last year. The couple and their families have resolutely denied all of Iran’s charges against them.
The two were released from Evin prison into house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran in November, but they were not allowed to leave the embassy until Tuesday, when they traveled in a diplomatic convoy with the French ambassador to Azerbaijan. They made it back to France on Wednesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the French couple was released in a prisoner swap deal for Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman imprisoned by France for glorifying terrorism in social media posts. Esfandiara’s lawyer said she was released from house arrest on Tuesday.
Esfandiari, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison in February for glorifying the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities against Israel as an “act of resistance.” The judge suspended three years of her four-year sentence, but said she would have to leave France after the remaining year had been served.
“This marks the end of a terrible ordeal lasting three and a half years. We are absolutely delighted that they have arrived on French soil,” Macron said when announcing Paris and Kohler had returned to France on Wednesday.
“For us, this is a fresh start. We’re not broken. We’re going to share our stories, we’re going to explain things, and we’re going to enjoy life, reconnect with all our loved ones and move forward,” Paris said after meeting with Macron at the Elysee gardens on Wednesday.
Kohler described her captivity in Iran as “daily horror,” while Paris said they endured “inhumane conditions of detention” intended to “break us, to crush us, to take away all our energy.”
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