Iraq vows it ‘will not be lenient’ with Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnappers

Iraq has said it will show no leniency to the kidnappers of an Israeli-Russian researcher who has been missing for more than six months, as international pressure mounts on Baghdad to move forward with the investigation.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a PhD student at Princeton University in the US, who was conducting research in Baghdad when she was kidnapped, was last seen leaving a coffee shop in the Iraqi capital in March.

The Israeli government believes she is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi armed militia.

Read more: The National