(FILE PHOTO)Iraqi forces advance towards the Old City of Mosul on June 19, 2017 during an ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (AFP photo)

MOSUL, Iraq, June 20 (Xinhua) -- A French journalist and an Iraqi Kurdish journalist have been killed in a landmine explosion in the western side of Mosul, an Iraqi security source said.

The incident occurred on Monday when a landmine struck a vehicle carrying journalists covering the advance of the Iraqi forces against the Islamic State (IS) militants at the edge of the IS-held old city center, the source said in a report.

The blast killed Stephane Villeneuve, one of the French journalists and Bakhtiyar Haddad, an Iraqi journalist, it said.

The incident took place as the Iraqi forces, backed by international coalition, have launched a final push since Sunday morning to drive out IS militants from al-Shifaa neighborhood and most of the densely-populated old city center in the western side of Mosul, locally known as the right bank of Tigris River.

Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.