BAGHDAD, April 7 (Reuters) - Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah, which is aligned with Iran, said on ‌Tuesday it would release abducted U.S. journalist ‌Shelly Kittleson, adding that she must leave Iraq immediately.

Kittleson was abducted ​in late March in Baghdad.

Middle East news site Al-Monitor said Kittleson was a U.S. freelance journalist based in Rome who had covered several wars in the region ‌and had contributed ⁠articles to the outlet.

A video purporting to show Kittleson was shared by a social ⁠media outlet close to Kataib Hezbollah on Tuesday.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, which ​if confirmed ​would be the first ​images of Kittleson published ‌since her kidnapping.

In the video, a woman identifying herself as Kittleson appears standing against a plain background, speaking in English directly to the camera. Reuters could not verify when or where it was filmed.

Her release ‌follows intensified efforts by the Iraqi ​government and several influential Shi'ite ​leaders, who applied ​pressure on the militia group to secure ‌her freedom, a government official ​with knowledge ​of the situation told Reuters.

In March 2023, an Israeli-Russian graduate student from Princeton University, Elizabeth Tsurkov, ​was kidnapped by ‌Kataib Hezbollah militia during a research trip to ​Iraq. She was released in 2025.

(Reporting by ​Reuters; Editing by Matthew Lewis)