An Israeli researcher who has been missing for months in Iraq is being held by a Shiite militia, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, a doctoral student at Princeton University, was kidnapped and detained by the group Kata’ib Hezbollah after leaving a cafe in a middle-class neighborhood of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, in late March, according to her family and people with knowledge of her case.
She holds both Israeli and Russian passports and, according to the Israeli government, entered the country on her Russian passport. Israel and Iraq have no diplomatic relations, so she would not have been admitted with an Israeli passport.
Ms. Tsurkov went to Iraq in January to conduct academic research there. In addition to her studies at Princeton, she is a fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a Washington-based research group.
Ms. Tsurkov’s seizure raised fears that she could be transferred to Iran, but there is no indication that that has happened, according to those familiar with the episode.
“Elizabeth Tsurkov is alive and we hold Iraq accountable for her safety and well-being,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “She is an academic who visited Iraq on her Russian passport, on her own initiative as part of her PhD work and academic research commissioned by Princeton University in the US. The case is being handled by the relevant parties in the State of Israel out of concerns for the safety and well-being of Elizabeth Tsurkov.
The family of Mrs. Tsurkov confirmed in a statement that she had been kidnapped during her PhD research. thesis at Princeton.
“She was abducted in the middle of Baghdad and we see the Iraqi government as directly responsible for her safety,” the statement said. “We ask for her immediate release from this unlawful detention.”