Princeton student free two years after terrorist seizure

The Kata’ib Hezbollah militant group on Tuesday released Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian and Israeli citizen, after over two years of captivity. The group abducted her in Iraq in March 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Government staffers worked for months to secure her freedom, he said. Iraq’s security services also long worked for her release, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Tsurkov had arrived safely at the American embassy in Iraq. She is a Princeton student and has an American sister, he said. It was unclear which country Tsurkov would return to.

What was Tsurkov doing in Iraq when she was abducted? She was carrying out research for an unspecified doctoral dissertation for Princeton, according to a 2023 letter from U.S. senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker. Tsurkov was a keen policy observer, not a spy, they said. The senators also wrote that Russia would not secure her release because she criticized its war in Ukraine.

What is the Kata’ib Hezbollah group? The militant organization operates in Iraq. It is Shia Muslim and affiliated with Iran, though it also has ties to the Lebanese Hezbollah, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The U.S. State Department declared it a terrorist organization in 2009.

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