Story highlights Shifa Gardi, 30, is remembered as a beloved journalist in a male-dominated profession

She died while reporting from the front lines as Iraqi troops battle ISIS for Mosul

(CNN) A reporter and anchor for an Iraqi Kurdish TV station was killed Saturday while working on the front lines as Iraqi forces battle ISIS for the city of Mosul.

Shifa Gardi, 30, a beloved journalist in a male-dominated profession, died in a roadside bomb blast that also injured her cameraman, Younis Mustafa, according to her employer, Rudaw.

Bayan Sami Rahman, the Kurdish government's representative to the United States and a former journalist, tweeted that Kurdistan "has lost a courageous and professional journalist who cracked the glass ceiling."

Saddened to hear Shifa Gardi has been killed. We have lost a courageous and professional journalist who cracked the glass ceiling #Rudaw https://t.co/63NeNu06HR — Bayan Sami Rahman (@BayanRahman) February 25, 2017

Gardi had been live on TV hours before her death, reporting from western Mosul with Iraqi forces in the background. She joined the Kurdish media network in 2013.

Here's Shifa Gardi reporting live from #Mosul less than an hour ago https://t.co/OvZksFuPjM pic.twitter.com/ASe2v2e7PX — Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) February 25, 2017

The network paid tribute to Gardi on its website Saturday, recalling her empathy earlier this week when she earlier rescued an injured rabbit during fighting outside Iraq's second-largest city and ISIS' last stronghold.

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