The founder of the Da'i Party, Fadel Al-Marsoumi, was assassinated today, Thursday, by unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle in broad daylight. Al-Marsoumi was born and lived in a village called (Jadeedah Al-Aghwat), which is a village in the Khales district of Diyala province. He worked as an Arabic language teacher before adopting clerical attire and began spreading his message in 1990, referring to himself as "the divine imam da'i." In 2008, he founded the Da'i Party with a group of supporters, officially announcing it from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, to embark on a new phase of work in Iraq supporting the democratic process and freedom, which he viewed as a product of the overthrow of the previous regime. The Da'i Party works against terrorism, injustice, and corruption, advocating for the reform of minds through thought, and continues its activities under the framework of the constitution, according to the party's official website.
According to his biography on the official site, he faced significant opposition and hostility from political groups due to his "reformist intellectual project," which rejected sectarianism, armed struggle, and internal conflict. He had been previously arrested in Diyala in 2009 and 2012 on charges of leading an unknown and unfinanced movement.
A security source reported the killing of a cleric driving a Chevy Tahoe by gunmen to the north of the capital Baghdad. The source stated that "the gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, opened fire on a civilian black Tahoe vehicle containing the cleric near the roundabout bridge north of Baghdad, resulting in his immediate death." The source added that "the gunmen fled to an unknown location."
