Who Was Tara Fares? Iraqi Model Shot Dead In Baghdad

An Iraqi model and social media star was fatally shot while traveling in the capital Baghdad on Thursday. Tara Fares' death comes amid a spate of other murders carried out across the country this week by unknown gunmen.

Fares was killed just a day after she was voted one of Iraq's most popular social media stars, having over 2.6 million Instagram followers. One of Baghdad hospitals received Fares' body which suffered three bullet wounds, reports said.

One of the most recent social media posts on the model displayed a black-and-white photo of her with a message mourning her passing, as friends and fans remembered her.

Fares, who had spent most of her time abroad, had recently begun to spend more time in the Iraqi capital.

"Really shocked at the tragic murder of Iraqi model Tara Fares. I knew her through a friend. Tara began her journey when she competed in Miss Baghdad contest in 2014," one person wrote on Twitter.

An Iraqi radio station tweeted: "Iraqi model and blogger Tara Fares was shot in killed in Baghdad today, RIP."

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior said Thursday that it launched an investigation into the incident and is interrogating a person who was accompanying the model during the attack, China's Xinhua news reported.

Two other women involved in the fashion industry were reportedly murdered in Iraq in recent months. Fares was ex-maid of Miss Iraq in 2014 beauty pageant, and the next year, she was chosen Miss Baghdad. This week, a prominent women's right activist, Soad al-Ali, was also shot dead in her car in Basra.

Despite the military defeat of the Islamic State group, other militias continue to target the country. The security situation in Baghdad dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated ISIS in late 2017.