Jomana Karadsheh is an International Correspondent based in the network's Istanbul Bureau.

She has reported extensively from countries across the Middle East and North Africa including Iraq and Syria.

Based in Iraq between 2005-2011, Karadsheh began her career at CNN's Baghdad bureau as a producer and reporter and covered major news events including the trials and execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iraq's first democratic elections and the withdrawal of US forces from the country. Karadsheh was one of a number of CNN correspondents on the ground in Iraq in 2014 and 2015 reporting extensively on the rise of ISIS and the battle to recapture cities from the terror group.

Karadsheh was part of CNN's award-winning teams in 2011 covering the events of the "Arab Spring" across the region in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.

She was among a group of foreign journalists held hostage in August 2011 by loyalists to former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli. Karadsheh was recognized for her role in negotiating the release of the group.

Later that year Karadsheh returned to Tripoli and was based there until 2014 when inter-militia fighting spread across the capital and destroyed the main airport. During her time in Libya, Karadsheh covered stories including the capture and trial of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and Libya's first post Gadhafi democratic elections. In September 2012 Karadsheh was the only American TV journalist on the ground in Libya reporting live as the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was unfolding. In October of 2013 US Special Forces grabbed former al-Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi in a raid in Tripoli. Hours after the capture of the man described by US officials as "one of the world's most wanted terrorists", Karadsheh sat down for an Exclusive CNN interview with his wife at the family's home in the Libyan capital.

Karadsheh has also reported from a number of Gulf Arab states on major stories including coverage from Doha of the Saudi led blockade in 2017, covering the historic day in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as the ban on women driving was lifted in addition to reporting out of CNN's regional hub in Abu Dhabi in 2013.

In recent years Karadsheh has been one of CNN's correspondents consistently covering the war in Syria and the refugee crisis in neighboring countries. She made multiple trips to regime-controlled Syria including the capital Damascus during her time as a producer.

Karadsheh was part of the CNN team who for weeks covered the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi mission in Istanbul. Less than 24 hours following Khashoggi's disappearance after entering the consulate, Karadsheh was one of the first journalists on the scene interviewing Khashoggi's fiancé and reporting live from outside the building- before the world's press descended on the location.

Prior to joining CNN worked for other US media organizations in the region.

Karadsheh a bilingual Arabic and English speaker, grew up in Amman, Jordan and studied print journalism at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.