Daesh militants killed an Iraqi journalist Wednesday in the extremist-held northern city of Mosul, colleagues and local officials told AFP.
Members of radical group Daesh kidnapped TV cameraman Jala al-Abadi, 27, while he was visiting his hometown Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, last month for unknown personal reasons.
Militants took Abadi, a father of two, along with his laptop and phone on June 4, under charges of spying. He was later killed execution-style by firing squad on Wednesday. Daesh accused him of “leaking information” about the radical fighters to national press.
A medical source and a former senior security official in the area confirmed the journalist’s death with AFP.
Sources told AFP the young journalist was from Mosul and had worked with a local television channel before leaving in June 2014, when Daesh captured the city as part of a lightning campaign across Iraq.
Abadi is not the first journalist killed execution-style by Daesh militants in Mosul. Several others before him have been killed in a similar fashion, in the largest city held by the radical group.
Head of the Nineveh Media Network Mohammed al-Bayati condemned the latest killing, calling on the UN to support the families of journalists whom Daesh has murdered in Mosul.
The Iraqi air force in recent days has dropped leaflets over Mosul promising to retake Iraq's second city. However, there have been no reports of the Iraqi military or Shiite militias preparing a Mosul offensive.
