‘Leave Iraq now’: Americans in Baghdad warned of potential Iran-aligned militia terrorist attacks
Iraqi Shiite militia groups organize a military parade as part of the ‘World Quds Day’ events in Baghdad, Iraq, March 28, 2025. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. officials have issued a new warning to Americans still in Iraq, advising them to leave the country immediately as Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran may “intend to conduct attacks” in central Baghdad.
“U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now,” said the alert issued on Thursday by the United States Embassy and Consulate in Iraq, which has previously issued warnings for Americans to leave the country due to security risks.
The new alert comes as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has entered its second month.
The security alert also came just days after an American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was kidnapped in broad daylight on a busy street in Baghdad, allegedly by an Iran-linked militia group.
“Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran may intend to conduct attacks in central Baghdad in the next 24-48 hours,” the U.S. Embassy’s alert said.
The embassy’s statement added that Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist militias have already conducted “widespread attacks against U.S. citizens and targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.”
The alert cautioned Americans to be aware that militia groups “may claim to be associated with the Iraqi government.”
“Terrorists may carry identification denoting their status as Iraqi government employees,” according to the alert.
In addition to U.S. citizens, terrorist militias might also target businesses, universities, diplomatic facilities, energy infrastructure, hotels, airports and “other locations perceived to be associated with the United States,” according to the alert.
While telling U.S. citizens to leave the country immediately, U.S. officials also said the only escape routes out of Iraq are overland to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey because the airspace is closed, preventing commercial airlines from flying out of Iraq.
“Local ground transportation options are functioning. Americans should depart now via one of these overland routes,” according to the alert.
For the time being, the U.S. Mission in Iraq remains open. But the alert advised Americans not to go there.
“Do not attempt to come to the Embassy in Baghdad or the Consulate General in Erbil in light of significant security risks,” the alert said.
The search for Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist originally from Wisconsin, continued on Thursday, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.
“We have no answer or explanation,” the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday about Kittleson’s abduction.
In a security camera recording verified by ABC News and confirmed by Iraq’s interior ministry to show the moment Kittleson was kidnapped on Tuesday, the journalist is seen standing on a sidewalk as a silver car approaches before she is pushed towards the car, which then quickly speeds away.
One suspect alleged to be involved in the kidnapping was arrested when one of the cars fleeing the scene crashed and overturned, according to Iraq’s interior ministry. Kittleson had been forced into another car that got away.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs for the State Department, said in a statement on Wednesday that the suspect has ties to the Iranian-aligned militia group Kataib Hezbollah.
Workers line up to disinfect their protective equipment at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu during the Ebola outbreak response in Mongbwalu, Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 20, 2026. (Michel Lunanga/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Doctors and public health workers at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) told ABC News that the deadly virus is still spreading at an alarming rate.
“The outbreak is completely out of control,” said Dr. Richard Kojan in an interview from the city of Bunia in Ituri province, which is the hardest hit.
Kojan, who has been involved in fighting previous Ebola outbreaks in central and western Africa and is president of the Alliance for International Medical Action, said deep mistrust within some local communities is hampering efforts to contain the virus.
Another clinician, Dr. Richard Lokudi, who is the director of the main hospital in Mongbwalu, the hardest hit area, told ABC News that the disease was spreading “at an exponential speed.”
Dr. Lokudi said seven symptomatic patients suspected of having Ebola had recently “escaped” from Mongbwalu Hospital.
This was creating “chains and chains of contamination,” Dr. Lokudi said, adding that this was making the virus “difficult to fight.”
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,000 suspected cases of a rare strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo, have been identified in the eastern DRC and more than 230 suspected deaths from the virus have been recorded.
There is currently no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. Seven confirmed cases have also been identified in neighboring Uganda, the WHO said.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked as a senior official at USAID under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and is now president of Refugees International, said that the outbreak had already reached an “explosive” level of transmission.
Konyndyk, who is based in Maryland, described the situation in central Africa as“about as urgent as any Ebola response has ever been” and said the 1,000 suspected cases were “almost certainly the tip of the iceberg” and “perhaps even an undercount by a factor of two or three.”
Health officials believe the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola had been circulating, undetected, in the Ituri province for up to three months before it was officially identified. The unusual strain was harder to identify via testing.
However, levels of mistrust within local communities toward measures to contain the virus, as well as skepticism that the virus even exists, are now hampering efforts to stem the outbreak, health officials say.
Kojan said there is currently a lack of laboratory testing capacity in the region, which is needed for accurate diagnosis and effective contact tracing.
The lack of lab capacity means symptomatic patients suspected of having the virus can wait for days for test results, increasing the risk of them leaving isolation prematurely, Kojan said.
“People don’t trust that, you know, Ebola is a reality,” he said.
The Congolese clinician said he was on “the front line” without access to a laboratory, meaning he was struggling to build trust with patients.
New cases every day
Both Both Dr. Lokudi and Dr. Kojan said their healthcare facilities were receiving new suspected cases of Ebola every day.
Amidst the high levels of mistrust, there has also been growing anger towards strict healthcare procedures, which are necessary to safely bury the dead and stop the virus from spreading.
The two Congolese doctors confirmed reports that on two occasions, isolation tents and healthcare facilities had been set on fire by angry crowds in recent days.
In an exchange of messages with ABC News on Tuesday, Lokudi said the police and military were now protecting his hospital, but he said angry groups of youths had still been gathering nearby.
He said that in some cases, amid “resistance” from local populations, officials were unable to safely access remote areas of Ituri province to investigate suspected deaths from the virus.
Lokudi described the situation as “really concerning,” saying that if teams do not go to such areas, then family members face a high risk of catching the virus if they themselves bury their loved ones.
Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids, so treating sick patients and handling the deceased should only be done by healthcare teams in protective suits. Ideally, a victim’s home should also be sprayed down with disinfectant.
In the remote rural communities affected, these vital protective measures can run contrary to local burial practices and reports suggest this, mixed with a level of misunderstanding, has been the source of many people’s anger.
Kojan described a lack of masks and protective clothing as another “really big problem,” and both doctors said more adequately trained healthcare professionals were needed on the ground to raise awareness and implement barriers to stop the spread of the virus.
Cuts to U.S. programs created difficulties
Konyndyk said significant cuts to U.S, humanitarian aid in the DRC had made things harder.
“We’re kind of fighting this one with several hands tied behind our back,” Konyndyk told ABC News.
“When we have fought Ebola in the past on this scale, it has been a combination of the Ministry of Health, WHO, USAID, CDC,” he said.
“USAID is fully gone, CDC is badly weakened. WHO has been badly weakened, the U.S., of course, withdrew from WHO and cut off all funding,” Konyndyk added.
The former USAID official said in an interview that they were “almost certain” that if USAID were still in place, this outbreak would have been caught earlier.
Konyndyk said he believed earlier reports of “an unknown viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak” in the region “would have been brought to the attention of the U.S. mission” in the DRC.
“I’ve talked with some of the members who worked on that team, who were forced out of the government, who would say things like, look, I would be on the phone every week with health leaders in this part of the country,” Konyndyk told ABC News.
“I think the U.S. visibility on that diminished badly and that contributed certainly to the US being slow to wake up to this, but also to the world being slow to wake up to it,” the humanitarian leader said.
A White House official in response said the claim that cuts to U.S. aid have affected the response to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC was “ridiculous.”
“You could just as easily say people died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China didn’t. Why not blame the other countries who don’t do any foreign aid?” the official added.
The Trump administration has argued that its “America First Foreign Assistance programs” are intertwined with broader foreign policy goals and the national interest.
“The United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world, and we’re going to continue to do it,” the White House official said in a statement. “We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat-out corrupt.”
Back in the affected area of the DRC, both doctors interviewed by ABC said they had messages for the US and the world.
International support is needed urgently “on all levels,” according to Lokudi.
Kojan said he is appealing to the world to realize that this is about people’s “humanity.”
“People are really scared. It’s our humanity … so my message is, you know, we need attention.”
Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, seen as Israeli Knesset approves dissolution bill in preliminary reading on May 20, 2026 in Jerusalem. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Israel’s government is facing a global outcry over video showing its far-right security minister appearing to flaunt the rough treatment of foreign pro-Palestine activists detained from a protest flotilla.
Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday posted the video on X in which he appears to revel as dozens of the detained activists are displayed, with their hands bound and kneeling face down in stress positions. In the video, Ben-Gvir waves a flag of Israel over the activists, at another point smiling as a bound woman is roughly shoved down by masked Israeli security officers.
Walking among the detainees, Ben-Gvir tells the guards around him “don’t be bothered by their screams.”
Most of Israel’s key western allies have expressed outrage over the video, condemning it in unusually strong terms. The U.K., France, Italy, Spain Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium have summoned Israel’s ambassador over the controversy.
Britain’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper wrote she was “truly appalled” at the video, saying “this violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity.”
The U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also condemned Ben-Gvir, describing the flotilla as a “stupid stunt,” but saying the minister had “betrayed dignity of his nation.”
The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has sought to highlight Israel’s humanitarian blockade on Gaza by attempting to sail towards the territory to deliver aid there. Israel’s military, which has declared a naval blockade around Gaza, intercepted the flotilla’s civilian boats, that were crewed by volunteers from many different countries. Around 430 activists were detained, according to the flotilla’s organizers.
Israel’s foreign ministry on Thursday said all of the activists have since been deported.
In a statement, the flotilla’s organizers confirmed all of the detained activists are now being released and many are on a flight to Istanbul. The group hailed it as a victory, saying it is “a reminder of what global mobilisation and sustained political pressure can achieve.”
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni called the treatment of the protesters shown in the video “intolerable,” saying it “violates human dignity.”
Ben-Gvir’s video also triggered a furious reaction from Israeli politicians inside the country, who have condemned it as damaging to Israel’s international reputation. Other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition slammed Ben-Gvir, with Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar posting it was a “disgraceful display” and writing “no, you are not the face of Israel.”
The security minister on Thursday was defiant, firing back at Sa’ar on X that Israel should understand the country “has stopped being a pushover.” He added, “Anyone who comes to our territory to support terrorism and identify with Hamas will get slapped.”
Netanyahu on Wednesday published a statement that “Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza.” But he rebuked Ben-Gvir’s actions as “not in line with Israel’s values.”
The flotilla’s organizers said on X, “Netanyahu’s performative outrage over Ben Gvir’s treatment of flotilla activists exposes the regime’s desperate attempt to control its own narrative while maintaining the same brutal system.” They added, “This isn’t about one minister — it’s about the entire colonial machine.”
Israel has faced scrutiny over its treatment of Palestinian detainees during the war in Gaza. Former detainees and right groups have alleged prisoners were subjected to widespread torture, including beatings, electrocution and sexual abuse. A panel of UN experts in 2024 wrote they had received accounts of detainees “stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals.”
“In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence,” the UN experts wrote.
Israel’s government has vehemently rejected any allegations of torture. A recent New York Times article recounting allegations of widespread sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees has triggered intense controversy, with Israel’s government threatening to sue the newspaper.
Ben-Gvir, who leads the Jewish Power Party and has called for Israel to annex the West Bank, is known for his inflammatory public appearances and extreme rhetoric towards Palestinians. Last year, he filmed himself inside a prison with heavily armed security officers as he stood over a group of Palestinian detainees bound on the floor, telling the camera they should be executed.
The current uproar comes as Israel is moving towards elections expected to be a referendum on Netanyahu and his right-wing government.
Israeli opposition leaders blasted Ben-Gvir’s actions in the video. Benny Gantz, a former minister of defense, who left the coalition government in 2024, said it was “an embarrassing horror show.”
“In these elections we will do everything so that afterwards a broad, responsible Zionist unity government will arise here. One that will return the extremists to the margins and sanity to the lives of Israeli citizens,” Gantz said.
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Wednesday passed a bill to dissolve itself, paving the way for elections to be held later in the year.
US Coast Guard dive team is shown in Hope Town in the Bahamas as the investigation into the disappearance of Lynette Hooker continues. (ABC)
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. Coast Guard dive team is in the Bahamas on Wednesday searching for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who went overboard and vanished nearly two months ago.
The Coast Guard Investigative Service is leading the investigation and received permission from the Bahamas to send U.S divers to areas that were previously not searched, according to multiple U.S. officials.
The new search comes after forensic evidence found on electronic devices belonging to Lynette Hooker’s husband, Brian Hooker, led investigators to new areas of interest, officials said.
A U.S. official told ABC News that what Brian Hooker told investigators does not match the GPS data recovered from his devices.
Lynette Hooker has been missing since the evening of April 4. Brian Hooker told authorities that after the couple departed Hope Town on their dinghy to head to their yacht, called the “Soulmate,” bad weather caused her to go overboard.
Brian Hooker was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on April 13 without charges.
On April 14, Brian Hooker told ABC News that he was staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife. But hours after that interview, Brian Hooker left the Bahamas, with his attorney saying he wanted to be with his terminally ill mother.
