Princeton University student who vanished three months ago during research trip to Baghdad is ALIVE and being held hostage by Iran-backed militia group – as distraught colleagues call on Biden to negotiate her release
A Princeton University doctoral student who went missing three months ago is alive and being held by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has revealed.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, who disappeared in late March, is being held by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades.
The U.S. government listed the powerful Iran-backed group as a terrorist organization in 2009.
Netanyahu’s office said Tsurkov, a dual Israeli-Russian academic, is still alive and that they ‘hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being.’
The group’s leader and founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was killed in an American airstrike near Baghdad’s international airport in January 2020 along with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the architect of its regional military alliances.
Tsurkov, whose work focuses on the Middle East, and specifically war-torn Syria, is an expert on regional affairs and has been widely quoted over the years by international media, Tsurkov last tweeted on March 21.
Her colleague Hassan Hassan, editor in chief of New Lines Magazine, said co-workers were notified of her kidnapping in Iraq on March 29.
Hassan said that some of her colleagues had been in touch with her just days before she went missing.
‘We could not believe the news, knowing what Iraq is like for any scholar or researcher in recent years,’ he said.
‘But there is hope that she will be released through negotiations.’
Hassan said they they have reached out to American and foreign officials, including at Princeton University where Tsurkov is pursuing her doctorate, for assistance.
He added that they ‘called on the United States government to be involved in securing her release, despite her not being a U.S. national.’
America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. OH wait!
h/t Coastie Patriot