IS Sniper Killed Journalist in Libya

Photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans was fatally shot on Sunday while accompanying mine-clearing teams in the Libyan city of Sirte, according to fellow journalist Joanie de Rijke, who was reporting with him for the Belgian magazine “Knack”. Dr. Akram Gliwan, a spokesman for a hospital in Misrata where pro-government soldiers are treated, told AFP that Oerlemans was “shot in the chest by an ‘Islamic State’ sniper while covering battles in Sirte,” located 450 kilometers east of Tripoli, AP reported. The 45-year-old photojournalist was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, and was clearly identifiable as a journalist, de Rijke told Dutch national broadcaster NOS. The team was in an area of the city that had been freed from IS when it was ambushed, Libyan officials said. Fighting on Sunday also killed at least eight pro-government fighters and 10 fighters of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group, said Libya’s UN-backed unity government. An additional 57 members of the pro-government forces were wounded. Forces allied with Libya’s unity government launched an assault against IS militants in Sirte in May and have managed to recently drive them out with the help of US airstrikes.