TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Ta’aliq — “to hang” in Arabic — is Iraqi slang for the torture device that hoists victims into the air, their hands handcuffed above their heads. Akrab, or “scorpion,” is the more painful version, when the hands are first forced together behind the back.
Elizabeth Tsurkov
experienced both, and other excruciating torture, during 2 1/2 years held captive in Iraq by an Iranian-backed militia.The 38-year-old Israeli-Russian doctoral
student at Princeton, who speaks fluent Arabic and has researched the Middle East for over a decade, was studying social political movements in Iraq in March 2023 when she was forced into an SUV, blindfolded, sexually assaulted and beaten, then taken to a torture facility on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Her release in September was announced by President Donald Trump.
Now she is recovering in Israel as Iraqis head to the polls Tuesday for a parliamentary election that includes candidates linked to the militia Tsurkov says kidnapped her, Kataib Hezbollah.
Israelis are prohibited by law from traveling to Iraq, which Israel classifies as an “enemy country.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Tsurkov said she knew the risks but thought she took sufficient precautions, entering on her Russian passport and avoiding contact with militias. She hadn't counted on Kataib Hezbollah's deep penetration of activist circles in Baghdad.
She said her captors didn’t know she was Israeli at first and believes they kidnapped her to try to get a large ransom for a foreigner. While Kataib Hezbollah has never publicly claimed her kidnapping, it has released social media statements that include fake information she gave during torture, a sign of its involvement.
The group, an ally of Hezbollah in Lebanon, is part of a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that are officially part of Iraq’s armed forces but often act on their own. The U.S. has listed Kataib Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 2009.
A month into Tsurkov’s captivity, her captors found Hebrew messages and other evidence she was Israeli on her phone. That’s when the torture began, she said, as they accused her of being a spy. Their starting ransom demand was $600 million, she was told by Israeli officials.
“The torture was incredibly brutal,” said Tsurkov, now recovering at a friend’s home near Tel Aviv.
“They electrocuted me. They constantly touched me inappropriately. They forced me into positions that were very painful to me because of my herniated" discs, she said, adding she had back surgery just eight days before the kidnapping.
The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse except in cases where they publicly identify themselves or share their stories openly.
Tsurkov's captors used a plastic whip, especially on her feet, because feet heal slowly. They threatened to kill her with a gun stamped property of the Iraqi security services. She would pray to pass out to end the torture sessions.
She said she made up false confessions to appease the torturers, careful to avoid implicating Iraqi acquaintances.
After 4 1/2 months, Tsurkov was moved to what she believes is a Kataib Hezbollah base on the border with Iran, where the torture stopped. She was allowed sufficient food and water, and eventually a TV, while kept in solitary confinement in a windowless cell.
Hopes for release plummeted after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, when Tsurkov became just one of over 250 hostages of concern to Israel.
The torture has left Tsurkov with likely permanent nerve damage. Between doctor's appointments and physical therapy, she mostly reclines on a couch, shifting positions to try to find relief.
The details of the torture facility are impossible to forget, she said: Splashes of blood on the walls, desperate scrawls of people held in the cell before her. It’s uncomfortable to share them publicly.
“Any human being doesn’t want the details about their worst experiences in their life to be known,” Tsurkov said.
Still, she knows that as a Westerner she is in a unique position to shed light on Iraqi militias. Few people survive Iraq's torture facilities, and the Iraqis who do are terrified speaking out could endanger them or their families.
Iraqi militias are not as familiar globally because they are mostly active inside Iraq. Iraqi militias targeted U.S. forces in the region after the Oct. 7 attack because of Washington’s support for Israel, but that largely stopped after a U.S. retaliatory attack killed a high-ranking Kataib Hezbollah commander.
“Their focus is overwhelmingly just oppressing their own people,” Tsurkov said.
She knew the militia was well-funded, she said, because of the plush leather and new-car smell of the luxury vehicles that transported her blindfolded.
Tsurkov, who was born in Russia, moved to Israel around age 4. Before that her parents were imprisoned in Russia for opposing the communist government.
Her mother was incarcerated for three years, her father for seven, plus two years of hard labor in Siberia. For a few months, Tsurkov’s father was held in a cell with former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who later became an Israeli cabinet minister. Her grandfather was imprisoned under Stalin.
Tsurkov’s family fought for her release, launching a campaign focused mostly on the U.S. Her sister, Emma Tsurkov, is married to a U.S. citizen.
Israel also invested “great efforts and many resources” to help secure Tsurkov's release, said an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Russian Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to an AP request for comment.
As far as she knows, Tsurkov was not exchanged for any prisoners.
Her release followed significant pressure from Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs who held multiple meetings and regularly took to social media to demand Tsurkov’s freedom.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that with Tsurkov’s Princeton enrollment and other ties to the U.S., Trump “was willing to leverage our country’s strength and his negotiating skills to intervene.”
Tsurkov also credits the involvement of an Iraqi-American businessman and Trump donor Mark Savaya. As she was recuperating in Israel, Tsurkov said Savaya told her he had warned Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during a meeting to release her or the Trump administration would attack Kataib Hezbollah. Savaya was later named the U.S. special envoy for Iraq.
Tsurkov's release came after Israel decimated many of Iran’s proxies and hit Iran hard during a devastating 12-day war, a campaign so intense that Tsurkov said she felt the building shake where she was held over the border in Iraq.
The Iraqi government and Kataib Hezbollah did not respond to AP requests for comment. But militia security chief Abu Ali al-Askari wrote on Telegram that the Iraqi government demanded Tsurkov’s release to avoid a possible strike against Iraq.
A Shiite official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed militia leaders worried they would be targeted by the U.S.
About a week after Tsurkov believes Savaya met with al-Sudani, she was brought to Baghdad and handed over to an Iraqi security official in a nondescript garage.
At the U.S. Embassy, she had an ecstatic video chat with her family before returning to Israel.
Before her kidnapping, Tsurkov was frequently quoted in Israeli media for her expertise on the Syrian civil war. She traveled twice to Syria and has tattoos supporting Syrian independence, which she said angered her torturers. She has been vocal in her criticism of the Israeli government and supportive of Palestinians, prompting online vitriol since her release.
Now she is rebuilding her life. She plans to finish her doctorate at Princeton. She is overjoyed to experience small things like seeing the sea or feeling the sun warm her skin.
Once she has healed enough, she hopes to return to research, especially field work highlighting marginalized groups.
“It often feels like a nightmare that I woke up from," she said. "It feels so surreal to have undergone, and overcome, such brutality.” ___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Seung Min Kim in Washington and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed.
