Washington ? Michael Kelly, editor-at-large for The Atlantic Monthly, was killed while covering the war in Iraq, the first American journalist to die in the conflict.

Kelly, also a columnist for The Washington Post and a former editor of The New Republic, died Thursday night along with a U.S. soldier when their Humvee went into a canal. Kelly, 46, was traveling with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division as one of 600 journalists embedded with U.S. forces.

Four foreign journalists have died covering the conflict.

Kelly, who also covered the first Gulf War, told ABC News last month that he did not consider his Iraq assignment overly dangerous.

“There is some element of danger, but you’re surrounded by an Army, literally, who is going to try very hard to keep you out of danger,” he said.

Condolences came Friday from officials and colleagues.

Atlantic Monthly owner David Bradley said the magazine “has had 145 years of good times and bad, but no moment more deeply sad than this one now.”

Kelly’s final column for The Washington Post was published Thursday. In it, he wrote about accompanying an Army task force as it captured a bridge across the Euphrates River.

Kelly is survived by his wife, Madelyn, and two sons, Tom, 6, and Jack, 3.