Iraqi Tik-Tok star shot dead outside home in Baghdad
An Iraqi Tik-Tok star was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad on Friday, according to security officials.
Om Fahad, a social media influencer who made popular videos dancing to Iraqi music, was killed in her car in the Zayouna district by an unidentified gunman.
A security official told AFP the attacker appeared to have pretended to be making a food delivery.
In the wake of the killing, the interior ministry said it had "formed a specialised work team" to investigate the killing.
Fahad had previously been sentenced to six months in jail in February 2023 for sharing "videos containing indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality".
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Numerous Iraqi social media personalities have been killed in recent years.
In February, a trans blogger known as "Simsim" was stabbed to death in the city of Diwaniyah, while another TikTok star, Noor Alsaffar, was killed in 2023.
In 2018, Tara Fares, a model with three million followers on Instagram, was shot dead in Baghdad.
Despite the end of military conflict in Iraq, the country continues to be plagued by assassinations and kidnappings by armed groups.
Social media stars and LGBTQ people have been a particular target for threats and murders in recent years.
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