MOSUL, Iraq, June 17 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed an Iraqi broadcaster in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

They said the killers shot Mohieldin Abdul-Hameed in the head from their car just after he left his home in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, before driving off.

Abdul-Hameed, in his mid-50s, was a presenter for Nineveh's local state-run TV station. Colleague Sameer Sloka told Reuters Abdul-Hameed had received death threats from militants claiming to be members of al Qaeda in Iraq before he was killed.

"We receive this news (of his death) with pain," he said. "He received several letters warning him to leave his job, as have most of our employees."

Iraqi security forces are conducting a security operation in Mosul to root out al Qaeda which the U.S. military says is the last urban stronghold of the Sunni Islamist group.

Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, according to New York-based watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Around 130 reporters and 50 media assistants have been killed since the invasion, it says -- either by being deliberately attacked or caught up in crossfire.

At least three journalists were killed last month, including a female reporter shot in Mosul, a cameraman for a Baghdad channel whose colleagues said he was killed by U.S. forces and a reporter for a local newspaper, found shot dead after being kidnapped in Diyala province.

Gunmen killed the head of Iraq's biggest journalists organisation, Shihab al-Tamimi, 74, in an attack on his car in Baghdad in February.

The CPJ calls the Iraq war the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history and says Iraq has the worst record for failing to solve murders of journalists. There were 79 unsolved killings, it said. (Reporting by Aseel Kami; editing by Tim Cocks and Andrew Roche)

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