A video journalist working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was critically hurt in a mortar attack in Mosul.
RFE/RL said Rasool Mahmood is a freelancer covering the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq. It said the attack was last Thursday. He was working for Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s service to Iran.
Radio Farda set up a GoFundMe campaign to help him and his family.
The organization said he was “reporting from the front lines of the push to retake the country’s second largest city from IS militants when he was wounded by a mortar in a counter attack by IS fighters against Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces. Mahmood was traveling with Peshmerga soldiers about 25 kilometers from the center of Mosul when the attack happened. He sustained broken bones and the likely loss of one eye. He is currently being treated at a hospital in Erbil.”
Thomas Kent, president of RFE/RL, described Mahmood as “a brave and dedicated reporter.”
It said some of his reports for Radio Farda have been picked up by international media outlets including CNN, Time magazine and USA Today.
