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BAGHDAD — American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson, 49, was kidnapped in Baghdad after two men forced her into a car, AP reported. The abduction took place at a busy intersection, and the outlet said surveillance camera footage shows the moment she was taken. Friends and colleagues described Kittleson as a reporter who often traveled to areas with militia influence and worked without the backing of a large news organization.

Kittleson’s abduction adds to concerns about safety for journalists operating in Iraq during the Iran war, when militias have launched frequent attacks on American facilities and the country has been caught in fighting between multiple regional forces. AP described militia rule as outweighing government control in the lawless corners where Kittleson often worked.

Colleagues said she had been warned earlier that she could be targeted. Hours before she was kidnapped, Kittleson met a friend in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood and said she had received information from U.S. officials about a militia group’s intention to target her, according to AP. The report said she did not believe the threat was credible and told her friend, “They will not hurt me,” before she was taken.

AP also reported details about Kittleson’s circumstances in the days before her disappearance. The outlet said she told friends she was under financial strain and had no assignments while in Baghdad. As a freelancer, she often relied on the support of Iraqi journalists, and she was said to have asked colleagues and friends about transport routes between cities shortly before her abduction while continuing to look for access to stories.

Friends described Kittleson as independent and self-directed, including her tendency to work alone and embed herself in local communities. AP reported that she sometimes stayed with families rather than in hotels, and that her independence meant she frequently traveled long distances with heavy belongings. The report also said Kittleson embraced Islam and was spiritual, and that she was a vegetarian, a choice friends said could be difficult to accommodate in meat-heavy environments.

Her mother, Barb Kittleson, told AP she had not seen her daughter in person since 2002. The mother said she and Kittleson exchanged emails a couple of times a week, including on Monday when Kittleson sent a few pictures. “She said, ‘Here’s a current picture of me,’” Barb Kittleson told AP, describing it as something her daughter did quickly.

AP quoted Patrizio Nissirio, a former editor at Italian news agency ANSA who has known Kittleson since 2011. Nissirio said, “She is a great reporter and always wants to go to areas where no one wants to go,” and added that when he told her she “don’t need to be in a war zone to do good journalism,” Kittleson responded, “I think my work is worth something when I am in those areas.” Nissirio also said her work had long been difficult but that she carried a “burning passion for it.”

Before the abduction, AP said Kittleson had traveled through the region in recent weeks. It reported that on March 9 she was in Syria seeking to enter Iraq at the border crossing in al-Qaim; border police gave her a visa, but Iraqi intelligence officers later stopped her and turned her back, citing kidnapping threats, according to three different accounts from people she contacted that day. AP said she then went to Jordan and entered Iraq from there with little issue.

In addition to describing her background, AP said Kittleson’s mother and colleagues linked her recent work to the broader conflict affecting Iraq’s Kurdish region. The report said Kittleson published her most recent story Monday in the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, focusing on what the Iran war is doing to Iraq’s Kurdish area. “Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” her mother said, adding that she had wanted her daughter to come home but Kittleson told her, “I’m helping people.”

AP reported that three Iraqi friends and acquaintances of Kittleson spoke about her on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal from armed groups if publicly linked to her. The outlet said Kittleson had been stopped before at checkpoints by security forces and militias but had previously managed to secure her release.