David Bloom, a prominent NBC News journalist who was covering the war in Iraq, died suddenly of a non-combat ailment while on duty.
Described as "dedicated, tenacious and talented," the 10-year NBC veteran, who was 39, was traveling with troops about 25 miles south of Baghdad when he suddenly collapsed, according to NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust.
He was airlifted to a nearby field medical unit, where he was pronounced dead from a pulmonary embolism, Gollust told The Associated Press.
Bloom, a Minnesota native, would have been 40 next month.
Co-anchor of the weekend editions of "Today" since March 2000, Bloom, who joined NBC in 1993, covered major stories for the network, including the violence in Israel, the war on terror and recovery efforts at the recovery efforts from Ground Zero.
Before he became an anchor, Bloom was a White House correspondent, covering the Republican presidential race for NBC News.
The news of Bloom's death comes on the heels of the death of the first U.S. journalist in the war, Michael Kelly. He was a Washington Post columnist and Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large. Kelly, who was embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, was killed Thursday night in a Humvee accident.