Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023, may have been transferred to Iran, according to an unnamed senior Iraqi official. Tsurkov is being held by the Iran-backed Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq. The official states that there is evidence of the kidnapping and that the Iraqi Prime Minister knows who kidnapped her. However, there has been no breakthrough in locating her, despite increasing pressure from the United States.