Iraqi media said that an American employee working for a non-governmental relief organization was killed today in Baghdad after he was shot in the Karrada neighborhood of the Iraqi capital.

And Reuters news agency quoted Iraqi police sources as saying that the American citizen was shot dead after a failed attempt to kidnap him.

The sources said that armed men in a vehicle opened fire on a sports car in which the victim was traveling, killing him.

"According to our initial investigations and eyewitnesses, gunmen tried to kidnap the American citizen," said an Iraqi police major.

A police source stated that the victim was carrying an identity card that showed that he worked as an English language teacher.

In its first reaction, the US State Department said that it was aware of the reports of the killing of an American citizen in the Karrada neighborhood in Baghdad and that it was looking into them and had nothing to announce at the moment, while the US embassy in Baghdad declined to comment on the incident.