Hussein Adel Madani was a well-known Iraqi cartoonist and political activist.

He and his wife, Sara Madani also an activist, were assassinated by masked gunmen who stormed their Basra home early Thursday after amid of the fast growing protests across Iraq. The local activists had been taking part in protests in the city the previous night.

Security forces say unknown assailants shot the couple dead and left heir 2-year-old daughter, Zahra, « unharmed ».

The protests, concentrated in Baghdad and in predominantly Shiite areas of southern Iraq, are mostly spontaneous, without political leadership, and staged by disenchanted youth demanding jobs, improved services such as electricity and water, and an end to Iraq’s endemic corruption.

At least 99 people have died and nearly 4,000 have been wounded since protests began in the capital on Tuesday before spreading to the south of the country, according to the Iraqi parliament’s human rights commission.

The mainly young, male protesters have insisted their movement is not linked to any party or religious establishment and have scoffed at recent overtures by politicians.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killing of the activists.