The other three journalists were wounded and they are now receiving treatment at a US base in the town of Qayyara in southern Nineveh Province.
Two of the injured French reporters have been identified as Veronique Robert and Stephane Villeneuve, according to France 2 television. The two were seriously wounded, Reuters reported citing a diplomatic source. The third, a freelance reporter who has not been identified, was lightly injured.
French Special Forces enlisted Iraqi forces to hunt and kill French nationals who had joined ISIS in Iraq, according to Iraqi and French officers cited in a Wall Street Journal reported on May 29.
The crown on everyone's head
The Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy stated that “one more journalist became a victim to spreading the truth.” It added that Haddad had been injured three times before as he covered the war in Mosul.
The Kurdish media advocacy group issued a written statement on the death of Haddad. It said that he had worked for a number of French media outlets, including his recent work as a translator with France 1 and 2 channels in Mosul, and that he also used to work as a translator with the French consulate in Erbil.
His father, Abdullah Haddad, was also a journalist and a writer, Metro said.
“Unfortunately no party helps and guides journalists, nor warns them about the dangers in these areas regarding planted bombs and other dangers,” Haddad’s friend, Ahmad Anwar Jaf, also a journalist, was quoted as saying by Metro.
Jaf said that media coordination is being done in a “random way” adding that though the Iraqi War Media Cell is there to act as facilitator, “everyone is left on their own.”
This is the third confirmed killing of a journalist in conflict in Iraq in 2017.
The media advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) describes Iraq as “one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists" where journalists are targeted by pro-government forces and rebel groups, including ISIS.
Photo credits: Bakhtiyar Haddad Facebook account
