IS extremists kill journalist in Iraq's Mosul

The Islamic State group (IS) has reportedly killed a woman journalist and blown up an ancient Christian church in Mosul

Soha Ahmad Radi, a Christian and the editor of the local newspaper Nineveh, was killed a few days after she was taken from her home in the east of Mosul, the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory reported.

An IS-associated so called Sharia court found her 'guilty of spying' for foreign powers, and sentenced her to death. Bullet wounds were evident on her body when it was returned to her family for burial.

According to the observatory, 14 journalists have been killed since the IS seized control of Mosul in June last year.

The IS also destroyed an ancient Syrian Orthodox church in the middle of Mosul, according to Ismael Kaweh, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

14 journalists have been killed since the IS seized control of Mosul in June last year.

IS members first emptied the church of its contents, then piled explosives around it and blew it up.

According to Kaweh, the church was over 1,000 years old.

Government reverses

Meanwhile, further south the IS seized three towns from the government in Salahuddin and Anbar provinces.

According to a local source in Salahuddin, the IS seized the towns of Maliha and Sayyed in the west of the province from the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilisation forces in a lightning attack Monday.

The source told al-Araby al-Jadeed the attacks were launched on the two towns simultaneously, with light and medium weapons. The battle did not last more than two hours before the defending forces withdrew.

A local source in Anbar said IS fighters also seized the town of Brawnah, west of Ramadi, forcing security forces and local tribal forces to withdraw. Local tribes said they were forced to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties because they did not have enough weapons to defend the town.

However, the Iraqi government denied that Brawnah had been lost , and insisting that Iraqi security forces and tribes had stopped the advance.

After a meeting between Anbar governor Suhaib al-Rawi and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Abadi's office issued a statement saying that inadequacies in the direction of battles on the part of Iraqi forces, with too many commanders issuing orders, had permitted the IS to achieve consecutive victories in many provinces.