American columnist becomes first embedded correspondent to die in conflict

The war in Iraq yesterday claimed the life of Michael Kelly, a pre-eminent American columnist who wrote for The Washington Post and served as editor-at-large for the weekly current affairs magazine Atlantic Monthly.

Mr Kelly, 46, who in the past had also written for The New York Times and had a spell as editor of the New Republic, a liberal-leaning political magazine, was in a Humvee car involved in an accident. The name of a soldier who also died in the incident has not been disclosed.

Mr Kelly was the first American reporter to die in Iraq, and the first fatality among journalists embedded with US troops. He was with the 3rd Infantry Division. This is the first time that reporters have been allowed to travel with US troops to the front line.

One of the best-known conservative voices in the American print media, Mr Kelly had in recent months been a determined advocate of going to war.

After years of being a desk-bound editor, he decided to go back to his reporter's roots to write from the heart of the conflict. He worked in the region in the 1991 Gulf War as a freelance magazine reporter and he later wrote a book on the war, Martyrs' Day.

He was quoted in The New York Times just a few days ago that "there was a real sense after the last Gulf War that witness had been lost. The people in the military care about that history a great deal, because it is their history."

Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, praised Mr Kelly, noting that several journalists had died "trying to tell the very important story" of the war. "Mike was just a phenomenal journalist, with an enthusiasm for his work that was surpassed only by his passion for his family," Ms Clarke said.

Among the journalists known to have died in the war are the BBC cameraman Kaveh Golestan, killed by a landmine as he climbed out of a car in the northern town of Kifri this week; an Australian cameraman, Paul Moran, killed by a car bomb on 23 March, also in the north; and Terry Lloyd, a reporter with ITN, killed after coming under fire on the way to Basra in the south. Two of his crew are still missing.