ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kataib Hezbollah, a prominent Iran-backed Iraqi militia group, claimed on Tuesday that an Israeli-Russian researcher recently freed by the group was running the 2019 Tishreen protests in Iraq and working with Israeli intelligence. 

Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah in March 2023 and released earlier this month after over two years in captivity. Her release was announced by US President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. 

“Regarding her release or liberation, we understand that one of the reasons Mr. Sudani’s government worked on [it] was to spare Iraq a potential strike and to compel the American enemy – even if only relatively – to abide by the agreement with the government regarding withdrawal,” Abu Ali al-Askari, a senior Kataib Hezbollah official, said in a statement.

He claimed that Tsurkov had partnered with an Israeli spy team to run the Tishreen (October) protest movement to “incite Shiite infighting,” as part of an effort to “manage the notorious so-called Tishrinis and some civil society organizations, establishing direct relationships to enable them to access the parliament and state institutions.” 

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets in October 2019 in large-scale protests, dubbed the Tishreen movement, against the rampant corruption that has plagued all levels of the Iraqi state, demanding radical changes to the governance system. 

The protests were met with a violent crackdown by Iraqi authorities, with at least 541 protesters killed and over 20,000 injured, according to the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR). 

“The entity holding Elizabeth has stripped her of all the information she possessed, dismantled her team, and rendered her worthless,” Askari said, claiming that the researcher was working with Israeli spy agencies since 2006 and was the main link between them and the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group in Syria, headed by now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa. 

“[She] formed part of a broader program established in 2018 to produce and market [Abu Muhammad al-] Jolani and bring him to power in Damascus,” he said, using the nom de guerre for Sharaa. 

Days following her release, Tsurkov met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, detailing “the harsh conditions in which she had been held,” according to a statement from his office. 

The Kataib Hezbollah, a group under Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), has been designated a terrorist organization by the US. Numerous factions within the PMF have routinely been accused of acting with impunity and maintaining strong ties to Iran despite the group’s integration into the Iraqi armed forces. 

Iraq maintains a hardline stance against Israel. The country’s Law of Criminalizing the Normalization with the Zionist Entity prohibits officials and media personnel from engaging with Israel in any capacity, making it punishable by death.