Kelly, the first US journalist to die in the war and the first fatality among 600 journalists "embedded" with coalition forces, was reporting with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division when the accident happened, the paper said.

"Michael Kelly, the Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large and Washington Post columnist who abandoned the safety of editorial offices to cover the war in Iraq, has been killed in a Humvee accident while traveling with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division," the Post said in an article on its website.

His final column was published by the Post on Thursday.

SPACE.WIRE