ATLANTA (CNN) -- CNN national assignment reporter John Holliman died early Saturday morning from injuries sustained in a car accident. He was 49.

Holliman joined CNN in 1980 as part of the network's original reporting team and was the first correspondent hired for the Washington, D.C., bureau.

He was one of only three journalists reporting from Baghdad in January 1991 when the allied air attack began on Iraq's capital during the Gulf War. He and colleagues Peter Arnett and Bernard Shaw played critical roles in CNN's coverage of the crisis, which won a National Headliner Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and a Golden Microphone Award.

Holliman reporting on Internet coverage of the Starr report release on Friday

Holliman also served as the network's lead reporter for the Pathfinder mission to Mars in summer 1997.

In June 1989, Holliman covered China's historic student demonstrations and the subsequent government crackdown and Chinese Communist Party purge. That fall, he served as CNN's on-site reporter during Hurricane Hugo.

During his 18-year tenure at CNN, Holliman also had covered agriculture and the White House and had served as chief daytime Washington, D.C., anchor.

Before joining CNN, Holliman was an agriculture editor at The Associated Press Radio Network where he worked from 1974 until 1980. In that position, he covered all aspects of agricultural and food-related news of interest to farmers and consumers. He also wrote a daily column for AP's broadcast wire as well as farm stories for AP's national newspaper wire. In addition, he taught a course at the graduate school of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Atlanta.

Holliman provides in-depth coverage of the Mir collision in June 1997

Holliman's journalistic career included stints as a newscaster and reporter for Metromedia Radio News and WASH-FM in Washington, D.C. Holliman also worked at a number of radio stations, including WSB-AM/FM in Atlanta and WGAU-Radio and WRFC-Radio in Athens, Georgia.

Holliman received a 1976 Peabody Award for his documentary, "The Garden Plot -- Food as a Weapon in International Diplomacy." He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia.