PARIS: A French video journalist and an Iraqi colleague have been killed in a mine blast while covering the operation to root out extremists of the militant Islamic State group from Mosul.

State-owned France Televisions said in a statement on Tuesday that it “regrets to announce the death of Stephan Vill­eneuve, following a mine explosion in Mosul.” It said he had covered numerous conflicts, and expressed condolences to his wife Sophie and his four children.

Villeneuve was reporting for an investigative news programme called Envoye Special aired by France-2 television. The network wou­ld not comment further.

Iraqi media reported that Iraqi Kurdish journalist Bakhtiyar Haddad was also killed while working for the French team as a fixer and interpreter. His funeral was shown on Iraqi television on Monday night.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017