American journalist abducted in Iraq, security officials say.

By ERIKA SOLOMON, FALIH HASSAN and PRANAV BASKAR

A U.S. journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad by “unknown individuals” Tuesday evening, and government security forces have begun operations to find her and track down the abductors, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry.

The freelance journalist was identified as Shelly Kittleson by two Iraqi security officials. She has worked for various news organizations, and one of them, Al-Monitor news outlet, for which Kittleson is a contributor, called for her safe and immediate release.

A senior official at the U.S. State Department, Dylan Johnson, said in a social media post that the department was aware of the “reported kidnapping of an American journalist in Baghdad,” though he did not identify Kittleson by name. He said the department had warned the individual of “threats against them” and was working with the FBI to secure the person’s release.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad referred questions to the State Department.

The Iraqi ministry said that security forces had pursued the kidnappers as they fled, managing to arrest one suspect and seizing a vehicle that had been used in the abduction. The suspect is a member of the Iran-allied Kataib Hezbollah, the two senior Iraqi security officials said.

Kittleson was warned by the FBI that her name appeared on Kataib Hezbollah plans to “kidnap or kill” her, according to Alex Plitsas, who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research organization and described himself as a friend. Plitsas said in an interview with The New York Times that, after that warning, she had designated him as her point of contact with U.S. officials in the case of an emergency, but wanted to continue reporting and remained in Baghdad.

Barbara Kittleson, who identified herself as Kittleson’s mother when reached by phone by the Times on Tuesday, gave the journalist’s age as 49 and said she had last heard from her daughter the previous week.

Kataib Hezbollah is one of Iraq’s most powerful militant groups and the same militia that held Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli Russian doctoral student at Princeton University, hostage for more than two years, torturing her while in captivity. Iraqi authorities were now working under the assumption that the same group was behind the abduction Tuesday, one of the security officials said.

Kittleson was abducted on a busy street in central Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and her kidnappers sped off with her in a convoy of two cars, according to the two senior security officials. Authorities, who were informed of her kidnapping by witnesses, were able to track the cars to a highway outside the city and tried to chase them down, the officials said.

The car holding Kittleson overturned during the chase, the security officials said, but the kidnappers quickly removed her from the wrecked vehicle and put her in the second car. They then escaped the security forces pursuing them.

For years, Kittleson has covered the Middle East, according to her LinkedIn page, focusing on conflict across the region. She is known for “her courageous reporting from war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” according to Al-Monitor.

There has been growing American anxiety about Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq. In March, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad told all U.S. citizens they should leave Iraq immediately, citing attacks on civilian facilities and government buildings owned by the United States and its regional allies.

Kataib Hezbollah has also become embroiled in the war in Iran. A compound in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, belonging to the group was hit with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Feb. 28, killing three people, officials said. About two weeks later, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Since its inception, Kataib Hezbollah has been closely tied to Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard. Repeated attacks on U.S. Army posts in Iraq and Syria over the years contributed to Washington’s decision in 2009 to designate the militia as a foreign terrorist organization.