Iraqis have had enough. Saturday’s assassination of novelist Alaa Mashzoub has led to an outpouring of grief and a newfound determination among his many supporters. According to news from AP, “On Sunday, intellectuals and artists from Karbala, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, staged a sit-in”. Social media has exploded:

https://twitter.com/HanguinRamadani/status/1092184593841745920

HORRIBLE. #Iraq-i novelist and critic Alaa Mashzoub assassinated in Karbalaa today with 13 bullets.
He criticized radicalism, ISIS, Iran rulers & its militias. Penned work about Iraqi Jewish minority, history of Karbalaa & many novels. Will we see justice? RIP v @BaxtiyarGoran pic.twitter.com/K6kFJCrHRk

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) February 2, 2019

https://twitter.com/mollycrabapple/status/1092332495503323136

https://twitter.com/mollycrabapple/status/1092333693996335106

More about the killing comes from reporting by Voice Of America:

A motorcycle gunman shot dead an Iraqi novelist close to his house in the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala on Saturday, police and eyewitnesses said. Alaa Mashzoub, 50, was on his way home when he was shot multiple times, police said late on Saturday. It was unclear what the motive was and no group has claimed responsibility, they added.

“The cultural scene has lost one of its special authors and creators,” Iraq’s Culture and Tourism Minister Abdul Amir al-Hamdani said in a statement on Sunday. Mashzoub was active in local Kerbala civil society. Iraq’s writers union condemned the shooting and blamed security forces for not doing enough to protect intellectuals.

“The union holds the central and local government fully responsible, for they have failed to maintain public safety,” it said in a statement. Mashzoub wrote several novels and short story collections that won local and regional literary awards.

According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights:

Dr. Abboud, born in 1968, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad in 1993 and received his Masters and Doctor of Fine Arts in 2009 and 2014, respectively. He is a member of the Syndicate of Artists, the Journalists’ Syndicate, the General Federation of Writers and Writers, and the Society for Peace and Solidarity in Iraq. He has been a writer since he was young and began to publish his articles in Iraqi newspapers since 1987, including in recent years in the “Al-Sabah”, “Azzaman”, “Al-Mada” and “Al-Lttihad” newspapers.

He wrote a number of novels including “The Chaos of the Nation” in 2014, which was selected as one of the five best books at the Abu Dhabi exhibition. He also directed a number of documentary films, including the film “Doors and Windows”, which won the second prize at a short film festival.