Journalist with French TV dies of wounds from Mosul blast
PARIS: Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same land mine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday.
Robert had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement.
French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad, 41, were also killed in Monday’s blast.
All three were working for production company #5 Bis Productions on a program for the French news show Envoye Special, aired on public television channel France 2. A fourth journalist with them, Samuel Forey, suffered light injuries.
French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen paid tribute to a “great war correspondent,” in a post on the ministerial Twitter account.
Robert, 54, was an experienced war correspondent specializing in coverage of the Middle East, Iraq in particular, said the statement from France Televisions.
She worked for several news outlets in France and Switzerland, including Le Figaro newspaper and Paris Match magazine. Robert has two adult sons.
The journalists were accompanying Iraqi special forces during the battle for Mosul, where militants from Daesh entrenched in the narrow streets of the Old City, have set numerous booby traps.
France Televisions and #5 Bis Productions paid tribute to Robert’s work and offered their condolences to her family in the statement.
Emilie Raffoul, a producer at #5 Bis Productions, told AFP: “She was someone who was very determined.”
On Tuesday, the day after the land mine blast, Raffoul flew to Iraq to take care of Robert, along with colleagues from France Televisions.
The US doctors who had treated her at a military hospital said that even in a coma, Robert seemed mentally very strong, she added.