Iraqi model and Instagram starlet Tara Fares with 2.7 million followers has been shot dead at the wheel of her Porsche convertible in central Baghdad.

The interior ministry opened a probe into Thursday's murder of the 22-year-old who suffered "three fatal bullet wounds" as she drove through the capital's Camp Sarah district. Ahmad al-Basheer, an Iraqi satirist who lives in exile in Jordan after having faced death threats, condemned the murder of Fares.