Militants kill Iraqi journalist in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, May 21 (Reuters) Militants kidnapped and killed a journalist from one of Iraq's most popular national newspapers in southern Baghdad yesterday, his employers said today.

Ali Khalil had become a father only a few days before he was killed, they said. He was the 105th journalist to be killed in Iraq since hostilities started four years ago.

Khalil, 21, worked for the Azzaman newspaper and had just left a relative's home in the Bayaa district when militants kidnapped him.

His body was found a few hours later.

Khalil's brother had also recently been killed.

Gunmen killed two Iraqis working for ABC News in Baghdad on Friday. Their deaths brought the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 104, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists in 25 years.

REUTERS SKB KN1641