Leader of the Abu Al-Fadl Al-Abbas Forces of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, Aws al-Khafaji said on Wednesday that Iraqi renowned novelist Alaa Mashthob was assassinated because he had criticised Iran.

“My cousin, Alaa Mashthob wrote an article against Iran. Some men came and killed him in love of Iran,” he said, calling to reject all foreign presence and Iranian interventions in Iraq.

Mashthob, 51, was shot 13 times on Saturday evening by two armed men in front of his house in Bab Al Khan, in the city of Karbala.

Police in Karbala issued a statement vowing to uncover the circumstances surrounding Mashthob’s assassination and arrest the perpetrators.

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