Mosul: An Iraqi journalist was gunned down outside his home in the northern city of Mosul early on Thursday, police said.

Two gunmen shot dead Hilal Al Ahmadi, 50 and a father of four, as he left his home in Mithaq, an eastern district of Mosul, a police captain said, asking not to be named.

Ahmadi worked for two local weeklies, Mosul Echo and Iraqiyoun.

According to Iraq's Journalistic Observatory Observatory, more than 250 journalists and media workers have been killed in the country since the 2003.