A Woman Tells of Torture and 2½ Years of Captivity by an Iraqi Militia

They handcuffed her, hung her up from the ceiling and beat her senseless. They electrocuted her and forced her into positions that injured her back and shoulders. When she lost consciousness, they threw water on her face to wake her so the torture could resume.

Elizabeth Tsurkov endured two and a half years of captivity in Iraq, held in solitary confinement by an Iran-backed militia. Ms. Tsurkov, 38, said it was a marathon of psychological torment, but the most excruciating were the first months, when she suffered beating after beating by her captors, as well as sexual assault and other horrors.

“They whipped me all over,” she said in her first interview since being freed in September. “They basically used me as a punching bag.”

Barely able to sit up because of her injuries, Ms. Tsurkov, an Israeli Russian doctoral student at Princeton University, spoke while lying down in a friend’s home, the occasional jolt of pain forcing her to shift positions. During hours of interviews with The New York Times, she shared in mostly calm tones, sometimes interrupted by tears, the harrowing story of her kidnapping, captivity, and release.

Ms. Tsurkov said she was held by Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful of the Shiite, Iran-backed paramilitary groups that hold sway in Iraq. She said she had decided to share her story to give voice to Iraqis who have been tortured by the group.

Her experience speaks to how freely Kataib Hezbollah, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization, has been able to operate in Iraq. While thousands of the militia’s members draw salaries from the Iraqi state, the government has little, if any, influence over its activities.