HORROR footage captured the moment a popular Iraqi TikTok star was shot dead in her car by a gunman posing as a delivery driver.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad and grim pictures have emerged revealing her bullet-ridden car.
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CCTV footage showed the gunmen arriving on a motorbike and riding past the victim’s vehicle to park it by a wall nearby.
Then the attacker suggested he was walking away when he suddenly began running to the vehicle and firing multiple shots with a pistol into the car.
He then ran and sped off on his bike.
Photos shows Fahad’s body – dressed in a black robe – slumped in the front seat and three bullet holes in the car’s window.
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An Iraqi security source said the attacker was pretending to deliver food to the victim when he gunned her down.
Fahad’s assistant Nour al Suwaidi was also injured in the shooting.
An investigation is now underway into killing.
The influencer, who had nearly half a million TikTok followers, become known for light-hearted videos of herself dancing to Iraqi music wearing tight-fitting clothes.
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The Iraqi government launched a campaign last year to clean up social media content that it said breached the country’s “morals and traditions”.
An interior ministry committee was established to scour TikTok, YouTube and other platforms for clips it deemed offensive.
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In February 2023, Fahad was sentenced to six months in prison for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
Several other high-profile influencers have since been arrested, according to authorities.
Just days after Fahad’s sentencing, another TikTok star who goes by Assal Hossam received an even harsher sentence of two years.
Despite years of war and sectarian conflict after the US invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality.
But civil liberties — for women, sexual minorities and other groups — remain constrained in the conservative society.
In eerily similar circumstances model and influencer Tara Fares, 22, was shot dead in her car by gunmen in Baghdad in 2018.
It comes as neighbouring Iran is also facing a terrifying crackdown by its brutal so-called “morality police”.
Earlier this week, it was announced that well-known Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, 33, had been sentenced to death for supporting the anti-regime protests.
The musician had used his songs to publicly back the wave of “Women, Life, Freedom” demonstrations triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini died in the custody of Tehran’s morality police after being arrested for violating Iran’s hijab rules.
Salehi’s music bravely criticised the leadership of Iran, railing against their corruption and crackdowns on dissent.
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He was sentenced in 2023 to six years and three months in prison, but avoided a death sentence due to a Supreme Court ruling.
But this week, he was sentenced to be hanged, sparkling international protests calling for his release.
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Source: Sun
