Abduction of Russian-Israeli researcher sheds light on Iraq's kidnapping problem

She is known to have rented a flat in the Inner Karrada area of Baghdad in early 2022 and was reportedly living in the same area at the time of her alleged abduction.

Media blackout

A media blackout prevented many outlets including Al Majalla from reporting on the case until the story broke in the first week of July. Most foreign journalists working in Iraq had been previously notified but told not to report the news as delicate negotiations were presumably underway.

Media blackouts are often standard practice in the case of foreign journalists and humanitarian aid workers kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups despite there being little evidence these blackouts help save lives.

No official statement had been made by the Iraqi authorities on the case as of the morning of 7 July.

The abduction – though some sources claim she was arrested by Iraqi intelligence agents – of an Israeli citizen in a country that officially denies them entry and where anti-Israeli protests can draw large crowds gave rise to a flurry of social media commentary with many claiming she must be a "spy".

Tsurkov entered on her Russian passport and seems to have occasionally used a slight variation of her name, presumably as a precaution, such as one that appeared on an Instagram video taken down between 5 and 6 July.

However, she also posted photos of different Iraqi cities she had visited on her social media accounts and was open about being in the country.

She had also openly written on social media about having done compulsory military service in Israel but has also been strongly critical towards Israeli policies. She reportedly grew up in a West Bank settlement in the Palestinian Territories.

She does not hold US citizenship despite initial reports that first appeared in March that "an American-Russian researcher" had been detained.

She studied at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University and is a fellow at the DC-based News Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy think tank.

She is also doing a PhD at Princeton University in the US and was reportedly in Iraq for research purposes related to her PhD.

The Times of Israel reported on 7 July that "An Israeli government official confirmed on Wednesday that Tsurkov had made previous trips to Iraq, which Israel considers an enemy country. (The New York Times quoted Iraqi officials saying she had made more than 10 visits.) According to Israeli law, it is illegal for Israeli citizens to enter enemy countries, even on a foreign passport."

Kidnappings and torture

In early February, the well-known Iraqi environmentalist Jassim Al-Asadi was kidnapped by an unknown armed group while travelling by road from the Babil province to Baghdad.

Following his release over two weeks later, he reportedly stated that he had been subjected to "severe forms of torture" using "electricity and sticks" and that he had been handcuffed and psychologically abused.

It is not known on what conditions he was released, whether money was paid to his abductors, who they were, or any other details. He did not immediately respond to questions Al Majalla sent him via social media.

Many of those who have been kidnapped or "detained" in recent years but later released refuse to speak about their cases out of concern for their own safety or that of their families.

'They stole my country from me'

Afrah Shawqi, a journalist and former employee of Iraq's culture ministry who was abducted from her home by armed factions in late 2016, told Al Majalla via phone from France on 7 July that she had left the county a month and a half after she was released.

"Simply the time to get a passport," she said, noting that she had been granted asylum and that she had not been able to return to Iraq since then.

"On the evening of 26 December 2016, unknown masked men carrying weapons entered my house and took me by force, bound and blindfolded, to an unknown destination."

"The road was long, about three-quarters of an hour, until we reached a headquarters that seemed to belong to an armed faction, with large gates, guards, and cars in their garage," she recounted.

"They took me into a small room without windows and tightly closed with an iron gate and large locks, and there was a small, dirty toilet in it."

"The room looked like a cell that was previously used to detain others because I found writings on the wall similar to what prisoners write of names or the date of their arrests on the walls. I was subjected to daily investigation during my nine-day detention."

One of her jailers, she added, "hung me from my hands to the ceiling of the room with iron chains until my shoulder almost was dislocated."

"During the interrogation," she said, "the interrogator asked me why I write against Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, and Iran."

"They are the reason you can continue your work," she said they told her. "If it weren't for them, Islamic State (fighters) would have raped you."

She claimed that "I know and many others know that secret prisons still exist" in Iraq, belong to "armed factions and parties."

"They are located inside their headquarters sometimes and sometimes in other places, and are subject to strict security" precautions, she claimed.

"Sometimes they are inside houses that appear to be residential on the surface but inside there are secret rooms for detention."

Shawqi stressed that "every day I wish to return to my homeland" with her family as she is "tired of alienation".

She said she would do go back immediately if she felt confident that she could "return to my work without threats or fear of arrest or assassination".

"They stole my country from me," she added sadly, stressing that several Iraqi governments had tried and failed to bring armed factions under their control and that the government itself fears "retaliation".

Presumed captors of Israeli-Russian researcher

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced 5 July that Tsurkov was being held by a Shiite militia.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Thursday that the Kremlin was unaware that Tsurkov had been taken hostage.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited an Iraqi official who had been in touch with Tsurkov as stating that she "was initially held by Iraqi intelligence and was then transferred to Kataib Hezbollah. The Iranians, according to the official, are involved in the abduction," reported The Times of Israel.

Several media outlets reporting on the Tsurkov case have stated that she is believed to have been taken by Kataib Hezbollah or Asaib Ahl al-Haq — their brothers in arms in the anti-Israel, Iran-led resistance movement known locally as the "muqawama".

Both armed groups have brigades that were incorporated into the official government forces of the Popular Mobilisation Units after their participation in the 2014-2017 war against IS. They also maintain fighters and a structure outside Iraqi government control.

Both the US and Israel have reportedly conducted air strikes in recent years targeting Kataib Hezbollah and linked factions in Iraqi territory and just across the border in eastern Syria.

Kataib Hezbollah vows to uncover 'those helping Israelis in Iraq'

Following the 5 July acknowledgement by the Israeli prime minister of the case, statements on Telegram by Kataib Hezbollah's Abu Ali al-Askari seemed to deny previous knowledge of it.

Askari wrote that the armed group would now, however, intensify their efforts to determine the fate of the Israeli captive in Iraq in the interests of the public and to "gain further insight into the intentions of the criminal gang and those facilitating their activities within a country that prohibits any dealings with them."

He went on to claim the government was showing "insufficient seriousness" in ending foreign presence in the country and that the "occupier continues to openly and negatively interfere in Iraq's security, military, political, economic, and cultural spheres."

In May 2022 the Iraqi parliament passed a law making it a crime to normalise ties with Israel. Law violators are subject to severe punishments including the death sentence and life imprisonment.

The law came months after a controversial conference was held in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that promoted normalising ties with Israel.

The law was proposed by influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers. Al-Sadr had been accused by muqawama factions of being too close to Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who Iran-linked groups have repeatedly claimed have "secret ties" with Israel. It was seen at the time by some as a way to shore up the popular cleric's anti-Israel credentials.

Tsurkov had reportedly met with officials from the movement under al-Sadr in the weeks prior to her alleged abduction as part of her research.

Al-Sadr's followers are staunch rivals to muqawama factions and tit-for-tat assassinations between them have occurred in recent years, mainly in Iraq's southern provinces near the border with Iran.

Both, however, share a strong stance against Israel.