Two Iraqi journalists killed in village south of Mosul
BAGHDAD: Two Iraqi television journalists were killed by the Islamic State group while two others were trapped Friday in the same village south of Mosul but were later rescued by security forces.
IS infiltrated Imam Gharbi, seizing territory in the village and kidnapping civilians.
Police forces launched a counterattack, but several officers and the accompanying journalists were instead surrounded by the jihadists.
The attack by IS highlights what is likely to be a growing danger as the group loses more ground and increasingly returns to bombings and hit-and-run attacks that were its hallmark in past years.
“Colleague Harb Hazaa alDulaimi, correspondent for the Hona Salaheddin channel, and Sudad al-Duri, the cameraman for the same station, were martyred” in Imam Gharbi, the channel said.
Mustafa Wahadi, a third journalist from Hona Salaheddin who was among those surrounded by IS in Imam Gharbi, posted on his Facebook page while he was trapped, calling for security forces to rescue them.
“The situation around me is very dangerous” and “Daesh is very close,” Wahadi wrote, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“This may be my last post, maybe I will be killed,” the journalist wrote.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan later announced that “security forces were able to liberate the journalists who were surrounded in the village along with the officers who were with them.”
But Iraqi forces have yet to oust the jihadists from Imam Gharbi.
“We succeeded this afternoon in liberating those who were trapped,” said Staff Major General Najmeddin al-Juburi, the head of the Nineveh Operations Command, which is responsible for security in the province.
“Now we are completely surrounding the village and we will storm it within hours,” he said.
Imam Gharbi is more than 60 kilometres south of Mosul, and is located close to the Tigris River, near IS-held territory that was bypassed by Iraqi forces in their push north toward the country’s second city.
IS fighters crossed the river and infiltrated Imam Gharbi, an army brigadier general said. — AFP