Iraqi Kurdish reporter killed in Mosul

BAGHDAD: A female reporter working for Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw was killed by the explosion of a roadside bomb on Saturday during fighting between government forces and jihadists in Mosul, her channel said.

"Prominent Rudaw war reporter and journalist Shifa Gardi has been killed in Mosul as she covered clashes," Rudaw said on social media.

"Journalism remains male-dominated -- Shifa Gardi broke those perceptions and stereotypes -- we pay tribute to her courageous journalism," the channel said.

Rudaw editors told AFP that the 30-year-old reporter, who was born a refugee in Iran, was killed by an explosive device on a road in west Mosul and said that the cameraman working with her was wounded. He was transferred to Arbil, the nearby capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region where the channel is headquartered.

Iraqi forces entered neighbourhoods of the west bank of Mosul on Friday for the first since the start on October 17 of a huge offensive to retake the city from the Islamic State group.