An Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times was shot dead by gunmen today as he headed to work in Baghdad, the newspaper announced.

Khalid Hassan, 23, was killed in the southwest suburb of Sadiyah.

The circumstances of his death remain unclear but he had phoned his office to say that his normal route to work was blocked by a security checkpoint and he was going to find another way through.

Half an hour later, he phoned his mother to tell her: "I've been shot", the newspaper reported.

Hassan's death came the day after two Iraqis employed by the Reuters news agency in Baghad, a 22-year-old photographer and a 40-year-old driver, were killed in what witnesses said was a US helicopter attack, but which the military described as a firefight with insurgents.

Hassan, an Iraqi of Palestinian descent, had worked for The New York Times for four years, becoming the longest-serving staff member of its Baghdad bureau.

Bill Keller, the Times executive editor, said he was "part of a large, sometimes unsung community of Iraqi news-gatherers, translators, and support staff, who take enormous risks every day to help us comprehend their country’s struggle and torment".

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that at least 149 reporters and media assistants had been killed since the US-led invasion, the vast majority of them Iraqis.

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