Kurdish reporter, anchor killed in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq (Kurdistan24) - A prominent female news reporter and presenter who worked for the Kurdish channel Rudaw, Shifa Gardi, was killed on Saturday as a result of an IED explosion while covering an offensive by Iraqi security forces against the Islamic State (IS) militants in western Mosul.

A Kurdistan24 reporter near the site of the blast said Gardi died immediately and her cameraman, Younis Mustafa, was injured.

Ambulances carried Gardi's body and the injured photographer to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.

Gardi, 30, was presenting a daily special program about the battle for Mosul on TV and recently started to cover from inside Mosul, according to Rudaw.

"On February 21, while she was covering the war, she came across and eventually saved a wounded rabbit anxiously searching for refuge from the scourge of battle in Mosul," reported Rudaw.

She rescued the malnourished rabbit and brought it back to Erbil for treatment, where it was later handed over to an animal protection agency.

In a press release, Kurdistan24 Media Network sent its condolences to Gardi's family, her employers at Rudaw and wished a speedy recovery to the cameraman Mustafa.

Editing by Delovan Barwari

(Hoshmend Sadiq contributed to this story from Mosul)