American forces occupying Iraq have opened fire on a car in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi reporter and her husband, a police official announces.

Aseel al-Obeidi, the reporter of Dijla television, an independent Baghdad station, was killed by the US troops on Wednesday as she was travelling with her husband in the Tobchi neighborhood in western Baghdad, AP reported on Thursday.

Morgue officials said the bodies of the couple were riddled with bullets.

The US military said it was investigating the killing of two Iraqis during a patrol in western Baghdad.

The Iraqi journalists' union condemned the killings, urging Iraqi police to investigate the circumstances of the shooting.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 140 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

MVZ/TG/DT