Ahmad Shawkat () was an

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i journalist shot to death outside his media office in

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

, on 28 October 2003, following a series of

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a d ...

s. Shawkat was regarded as an opponent by the

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

regime, and had been sent to prison, and tortured, four times. He had spent the seven years prior to the USinvasion in

Irbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

, in Iraqi

Kurdistan Kurdistan (, ; ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo- cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. G ...

, in internal exile. Prior to his short career in journalism, he had served as an anatomy professor at

Mosul University The University of Mosul () is a public university located in Mosul. It is one of the largest educational and research centers in the Middle East, and the second largest in Iraq, behind the University of Baghdad. The University of Mosul was close ...

, and a Kurdish translator.Amazon.com: Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq: Books: Michael Goldfarb
/ref> Shortly after the USA occupied Iraq, in 2003, '' WBUR'', a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

station in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, broadcast a documentary about Shawkat. After the occupation Shawkat worked as a translator for Michael Goldfarb, an American journalist. Goldfarb only worked with Shawkat briefly, butwould describe them as close friends, due to the intensity of the period,. He wrote a book about Shawkat, after his death, entitled ''Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq'', and broadcast several ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

'' podcasts focused around Shawkat's family was coping with the US occupation, and the opposition members who assassinated the head of their family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawkat, Ahmad 2003 deaths 2003 murders Iraqi Kurdish people Arab journalists Iraqi academics 21st-century Iraqi journalists Journalists killed in Iraq Assassinated Iraqi journalists People murdered in Iraq Deaths by firearm in Iraq Academic staff of the University of Mosul 1951 births