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Iraqi cameraman killed in battles near Mosul

Xinhua, October 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

A cameraman working for an Iraqi television was killed on Saturday while covering an offensive to flush out the extremist Islamic State (IS) militant group from its last major stronghold in Mosul in northern Iraq, his channel said.

Ali Raysan, 32, the cameraman of al-Sumaia TV, received an IS sniper shot in his chest during a battle between Iraqi forces and IS militants at the village of Khuwin near the IS-held area of al-Shoura, some 30 km south of Mosul, the channel said in a statement.

Raysan's death came a day after the killing of another Iraqi journalist, who works for the Turkmeneli TV channel, while covering the clashes between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and IS militants in Iraq's northern city of Kikruk.

The latest deaths came as the Iraqi security forces backed by anti-IS international coalition are carrying out a major offensive to drive out the IS militants from its last major stronghold in and around Mosul.

Earlier, the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate said that more than 440 Iraqi journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 1,003 Iraqis and wounded 1,159 others in September across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said earlier.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003. Endit