Princeton doctoral student kidnapped in Iraq has been freed. 'We both
started sobbing,' sister says
[September 10, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Princeton University graduate student who was
kidnapped in Iraq in 2023 while doing research there has been freed and
turned over to U.S. authorities, her family and officials said Tuesday.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, spent more
than 900 days in custody after disappearing in Baghdad, the Iraqi
capital, as she was pursuing a doctorate focused on sectarianism in the
region.
She was turned over to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after having been
“tortured for many months,” President Donald Trump said in a social
media post in which he identified her captors as from Kataib Hezbollah ,
part of a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that are officially part
of Iraq’s armed forces but in practice often act on their own. The U.S.
government listed the group, which has not claimed the kidnapping, as a
terrorist organization in 2009.
Tsurkov's sister, Emma, a U.S. citizen who has campaigned for her
release, said she was in Washington for meetings this week when she
heard the news from Adam Boehler, the U.S. special presidential envoy
for hostage affairs.
The sisters were able to connect by phone and expect to be reunited in
the next 24 hours, though the details were still being worked out, Emma
Tsurkov said.
“I heard her voice for the first time in 2 1/2 years and still couldn't
believe it, and I just melted on the floor,” she said in an interview
with The Associated Press. “I heard her voice and she heard mine, and it
was the most joyous experience of my life, and we both started sobbing
and screaming.”
What Iraqi officials say about Tsurkov's release
Two Iraqi militia officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said
Tsurkov’s release came about as a result of negotiations and not through
a military operation to free her.
The officials said one of the conditions for her release had been the
withdrawal of U.S. forces currently stationed in Iraq — which had been
agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad last year — and that the U.S.
and Israel would not launch strikes on Iraq.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with Tsurkov's
family and told them “the entire state of Israel is happy to see her
return home.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a post on X that
Tsurkov’s release was the “culmination of extensive efforts exerted by
our security services over the course of many months.”
“We reaffirm, once again, that we will not tolerate any compromise in
enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, nor will we
allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people,” he
said.
Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of a coalition of
Iran-linked Shiite parties, but since then has sought to balance
relations between Washington and Tehran. In a recent interview with the
AP, he said he sought closer ties with the Trump administration.
One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the
Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed
militias that formed to fight the Islamic State group. This coalition
was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016,
although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy. Kataib
Hezbollah is part of the PMF.
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In this Sept., 2018 selfie image provided by Emma Tsurkov, right,
she and Elizabeth Tsurkov are shown in Santa Clara Valley, Calif.
(AP Photo/Eric Tucker, file)
The Iraqi parliament was recently considering legislation that would
solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing
objections from Washington. The legislation has not moved forward to a
vote.
An Iraqi army spokesperson said in a statement that “following
exceptional security and intelligence efforts," authorities were able to
“locate the place” where Tsurkov was being held, "reach it, and
subsequently hand her over to the United States Embassy, which will in
turn arrange for her reunion with her sister, who holds American
citizenship.”
Tsurkov disappeared in March 2023
An expert on regional affairs widely quoted over the years by
international media, Elizabeth Tsurkov entered Iraq on a Russian
passport to pursue her research.
She made her last post on Twitter, now known as X, on March 21, 2023,
when she recirculated a photograph of pro-Kurdistan protesters in Syria.
Emma Tsurkov said it was her understanding that her sister went to a
coffee shop in Baghdad’s central neighborhood of Karradah, days after
having spinal cord surgery, and did not return.
The only direct proof of life of Elizabeth Tsurkov during her captivity
was a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station
and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her. But
officials from multiple countries have confirmed in recent months that
she was alive.
There were reports last spring that negotiators were close to a deal,
with talks having centered on an exchange, but Emma Tsurkov said at the
time that no agreement appeared imminent.
Trump on Friday signed an executive order allowing for the U.S. to
designate nations as state sponsors of wrongful detention, using the
threat of associated sanctions to deter countries from taking Americans
into custody.
One of the provisions specifically noted that the order would apply to
cases in which a government is responsible for or complicit in “the
unjust or unlawful detention of third country nationals in which cases
the United States has a national interest.”
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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in
Baghdad and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
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