French journalist dies of wounds sustained in west Mosul explosion

French journalist Véronique Robert has died from wounds she sustained in a mine explosion in the western part of Mosul earlier this week as she was covering Iraqi government forces’ advances to retake the country’s second largest city from Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

Sophie Pommier, a spokeswoman for the French Embassy in Baghdad, said Robert lost her life at a hospital in the French capital Paris on Saturday.

The late journalist had been repatriated and transferred to the hospital on Friday after being operated in Baghdad.

State-owned France Television said Robert had covered numerous conflicts and expressed its "sincere condolences."

French video journalist Stephan Villeneuve and Iraqi Kurdish journalist Bakhtiyar Haddad, who were working with Robert, were killed in the June 19 explosion in Mosul. Haddad died moments after the blast and Villeneuve died hours later from his wounds.

They were reporting for investigative news program Envoye Special broadcast by France 2 national television channel.

Reporter Samuel Forey, who worked for a number of French media organizations, including French daily Le Figaro, also suffered light injuries in the act of terror.

The Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy said Haddad had been injured three times before as he covered the war in Mosul.

In February, Iraqi Kurdish correspondent Shifa Gardi, 30, was killed in a roadside bomb blast while covering clashes between Iraqi government forces and Daesh terrorists just south of Mosul for the Kurdish-language Rudaw television network. Her colleague, Younis Mustafa was wounded.

In October 22, 2016, a cameraman working for Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network was fatally shot by a Daesh sniper while covering Iraqi military advances near the village of al-Shura, which lies south of Mosul. The slain journalist was identified as Ali Raysan.

Iraqi forces kill 115 Daesh terrorists, dozen snipers in western Mosul

Meanwhile, the media bureau of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced in a statement that 115 Daesh Takfiris along with 12 snipers have been killed as Iraqi forces are pushing deeper into the last remaining areas held by the extremists.

Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by their Arabic name, Hashd al-Sha’abi, have made sweeping gains against Daesh since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle to retake the city began nine months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.

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