Baghdad– American freelance journalist Shelley Kittelson often worked without formal assignments from editors and on a low budget, taking shared taxis to lawless corners. from iraq Where militia rule is more important than government control.
Kittelson, 49, has lived abroad for years, using Rome as her base for a time and building a respected journalism career throughout the Middle East. on wednesday, she disappeared After being forced into a car by two people busy baghdad The intersection, surveillance camera footage was shown.
Patrizio Nisario, former editor of the Italian news agency ANSA, said, “She is a great reporter and always wants to go to areas where no one wants to go.” Patrizio Nisario, who has known Kittelson since 2011, when he worked as a translator for the agency.
“I told him, ‘You don’t have to be in a war zone to do good journalism,’ and he told me, ‘I think my work is worth something when I’m in those areas,'” Nisirio said.
Friends and fellow journalists describe Kittelson as a determined, courageous reporter who has spent more than a decade reporting from Iraq, Syria and the broader Middle East for a variety of news outlets, including Al-Monitor, a regional news site.
Highly curious and self-directed, she often immersed herself in local communities, sometimes staying with families rather than hotels.
Her independence meant that she often worked alone, traveling long distances and carrying heavy luggage with her at all times, while operating without the support of a larger news organization, which might have provided some security.
Friends say the Wisconsin native was kind and spiritual and had converted to Islam.
She was a vegetarian, something her close Iraqi friends said was often difficult to adjust to in meat-heavy Middle Eastern countries, and she was often teased for her back-breaking backpack. She had no confidence in leaving them at the modest hotel in Baghdad where she was staying.
Three Iraqi friends and acquaintances of Kittelson spoke about him on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from armed groups if publicly associated with him.
In his last conversation before the kidnapping, he asked colleagues and friends about transportation routes between cities, while continuing to seek access to stories.
A few hours before the kidnapping, Kittelson met a friend in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad and said he had received a warning: U.S. officials had told him there was a militia group. intended to target him. He did not believe the threat was credible.
Iraqi allies said Kittelson had been stopped at checkpoints by security forces and militia before, and she had always managed to secure his release. “They won’t hurt me,” she told her friend that afternoon before being taken away.
Instead, he spoke of increasing financial stress, saying he had no workload while in Baghdad. She struggled financially for a long time and lived a frugal life.
As a freelancer, she often relied on the support of Iraqi journalists.
On March 9, Kittelson was in Syria, trying to enter Iraq by crossing the border at al-Qaim. Border police granted him a visa, but he was soon stopped by Iraqi intelligence officers, who turned him away, citing kidnapping threats, according to three separate accounts from people who called that day.
Kittelson then went to Jordan and from there entered Iraq with little problem.
“She always complained about the way freelance journalists were treated and said they were not paid enough. She always tried to make ends meet and said she would sleep on any couch, unlike big foreign correspondents who sleep in expensive hotels,” Nisirio said.
“Her work has always been hard, but she had an intense passion for it that I respect and appreciate.”
Kittelson published his last story with Il Foglio on Monday, March 31. The story focused on the impact of the Iran war on the Kurdish region of Iraq.
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Associated Press writer Trisha Thomas in Rome contributed to this report.
