These 9 Arab politicians were assassinated

Mahmoud Fahmy El-Nokrashy Pasha (1888-1948)‎‎ was an Egyptian political figure who twice served as the Prime Minister of what was then the Kingdom of Egypt. 

Concerned with the Muslim Brotherhood's popularity and a coup against the royal family and the government, El-Nokrashy Pasha blacklisted the movement.

His stance against the group led to his assassination on 28 December 1948, by Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan - a 21- year-old veterinary student and a member of the Brotherhood. 

King Faisal II (1935-1958) was the last Hashemite king of Iraq at only four years of age, following the death of his father in a car accident.

At 18 he would take the throne only to lose it in a bloody coup d'état on 14 July 1958, which came in light of dwindling military support, flagrant British meddling and a rise in Arab nationalism. 

Insurgents led by Captain Abdul Sattar Sabaa Al-Ibousi took over the royal palace in Baghdad that day, killing Faisal II, members of the royal family, and several subjects. 

Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1906-1975) was the third king of Saudi Arabia. 

On 25 March 1975, King Faisal was shot point-blank and killed by his half-brother's son, Prince Faisal bin Musaid. 

One of the several theories surrounding the murder of the king was avenging the death of the assassin's brother, Prince Khalid bin Musaid - who was killed by a policeman in a protest against King Faisal's modernization reforms.

Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat (1918-1981) was the third President of Egypt. In 1979, he visited Israel and signed the Camp David Accords, which ended a 31-year war between the two countries. 

Widely seen as a betrayal to Gamal Abdel Nasser's pan-Arabism, the treaty was and remains extremely unpopular in most of the Arab World. 

On 6 October 1981, Sadat was shot dead by assassins posing as soldiers during a parade to mark Egypt’s 1973 war with Israel.

One of the founders of the revolutionary National Liberation Front (FLN) - which led the Algerian War of Independence - Mohamed Boudiaf (1919-1992) accepted the invitation of the Algerian military to become the chairman of the High Council of State (HCE). 

He called for comprehensive reforms and an end to military dominance in Algeria's political sphere. 

On 29 June 1992, during his first official visit outside the capital as head of the state, he was assassinated by a bodyguard during a televised public speech in Annaba.

Ahmed Yassin (1937-2004) was a Palestinian imam, politician, and founder of Hamas. 

He was known for providing social services, establishing hospitals, schools, and libraries. 

On March 22, 2004, Yassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike when a missile was fired at him as he was being escorted on his wheelchair from early morning prayers. 

Rafik Baha El Deen Al Hariri (1944-2005) was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998, and again from 2000 until he resigned in 2004. He is widely credited for reconstructing post-war Beirut.

Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 when a truck bomb with a tonne of explosives detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel. 

Almost nine years after his assassination, the trial of his alleged killers was launched in The Hague. Hezbollah members Mustafa Badredine, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Habib, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra were indicted for the assassination and tried in absentia by the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Assef Shawkat (1950-2012) was the Syrian deputy Minister of Defense from September 2011 until his death in July 2012. 

On 18 July 2012, Shawkat attended a meeting of the military crisis unit at the headquarters of The Syrian National Security Council in the Rawda Square of Damascus. 

He and three other top Syrian government officials were killed during a massive deadly suicide explosion.

Chokri Belaïd (1964-2013) was a prominent Tunisian lawyer, influential politician, and opposition leader of the left-secular Democratic Patriots' Movement. 

Belaïd was a vocal critic of the Ben Ali regime prior to the 2011 Tunisian revolution and of the Islamist-led Tunisian government afterward.

On 6 February 2013, as Belaïd was leaving his house, he was shot in the head and chest allegedly by Kamel Gaghgadhi.