Israeli Channel 12 reported that Elizabeth Tsourkov, who was kidnapped by a cleric and a high-ranking official in the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, was the one who initiated contact with her captors for interviews as part of her doctoral thesis preparation. Tsourkov's doctoral research focuses on Shiite movements in Iraq, specifically on the group led by prominent cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, according to The Times of Israel which cited the Israeli news channel's report.
Tsourkov herself contacted a cleric named Ahmad Alwan, requesting to meet his cousin, Muhammad Alwan, a senior official in the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, according to Channel 12. During their second meeting with Tsourkov, the two men discovered that she held Israeli citizenship and decided to kidnap her. Subsequently, there seemed to be attempts to transfer her to Iran.
The 36-year-old Tsourkov, a Middle East analyst and a doctoral student at Princeton University, entered Iraq late last year on her Russian passport before disappearing in March, according to The Times of Israel. Earlier this month, the Iraqi government launched an investigation into the kidnapping incident, as announced by government spokesperson Bassim Al-Awadi, following Israel's statement holding Baghdad responsible for the researcher's safety.
Tsourkov states on her personal website that she speaks four languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic. Her website also notes that she is a fellow at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy and a research fellow at the Regional Thinking Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank based in Jerusalem.
Channel 12 reported, without attributing the information to a source, that former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, who also previously served as head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, sent a message to Washington and Moscow in recent months informing them that Tsourkov's dual Russian-Israeli citizenship and her work "put her in danger." This warning was personally conveyed to her by Israeli officials, including prior to her last visit, according to the report.
Israeli broadcasting authority "Kan" reported that an Iraqi official who was in contact with Tsourkov stated that she was kidnapped from her apartment in the Karada neighborhood, and her Iraqi researcher roommate was also abducted. Her roommate, whose name was not mentioned, was released two weeks after her abduction and left Iraq shortly afterward, according to the report, which added that she recently returned.
Days after Tsourkov's disappearance, a local Iraqi website reported that Iraqi authorities had arrested an Iranian citizen who was involved in her kidnapping. The website claimed that the Iranian embassy in Baghdad was pressing for the man's release and deportation to Iran. According to the report on "Kan," the Iraqi source stated that he and others contacted Iraqi intelligence about Tsourkov approximately two months before her disappearance became widely known.
