Iraq revealed On Tuesday, November 14, its efforts to locate the kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, following the release of a video a day earlier—the first public evidence that she is alive since her abduction.
Iraq said Tuesday it is working to find kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, a day after a video of her was released as the first public proof of life since her abduction.
Israeli authorities revealed in July that Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants, after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.
On Monday, Iraqi channel Al Rabiaa TV aired the first hostage video of Tsurkov known to the public since her kidnapping.
Media outlets were unable to independently verify the footage or determine whether her statement was coerced.
In the video, Tsurkov mentioned the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip which has been raging since the Palestinian militant group launched their October 7 attack.
Tsurkov said she had been detained for more than seven months, without identifying her captors or the location where she is held.
A doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, Tsurkov said in the video she had worked for Israeli and US intelligence agencies in Syria and Iraq, and that there were no efforts towards freeing her.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early July accused Iraq’s powerful Kataeb Hezbollah of holding her, but the armed faction has implied it was not involved in her disappearance.
Tsurkov, who had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport, had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
