Masked gunmen on pickup trucks attempted to intercept Karim’s car in Baghdad’s Qadisiyah area at around 9 pm and fired 17 gunshots on the vehicle before fleeing, Ghada al-Amili, his wife, who was accompanying Karim at the time, told Rudaw, calling for an urgent investigation into the matter.
Karim, the head of Al-Mada Foundation for Media, Culture, and Arts, was a former advisor to the late Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and a prominent opponent of former dictator Saddam Hussein. He became a prominent politician after the 2003 invasion of Iraq and played key roles in the formation of successive Iraqi governments.
It is not the first time the 81-year-old has survived an assassination attempt.
In a statement, Al-Mada Foundation described the assassination attempt as “treacherous and cowardly,” saying that “the sinful and failed assassination attempt confirms the forces of darkness and backwardness, which are responsible for the present Iraqi devastation, are not pleased to see Iraqis happily interacting with a large and influential cultural event such as the Iraqi International Book Fair,” as Fakhri was on his way home from the fair.
It also called for a “rapid investigation” to be launched into the matter, to prosecute “those who hate Baghdad’s pride and cultural and social brilliance, and bring them to justice to receive their fair punishment.”
Iraqi activists and politicians are frequently targeted by militias and armed groups in the country.
In its annual World Report 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that in Iraq “between 2020 and October 2022, in the cases of killings, assassinations, kidnappings, and injuries Human Rights Watch investigated, barely any of the legal complaints filed by families and individuals had progressed towards achieving justice.”