Hussein Adel and wife Sarah Talib were both activists involved in the Tishreen Movement. For this reason, they had been subjected to death threats since 2018. They had to leave Basra and travel to Erbil, where they still did not feel safe and continued traveling to Turkey, where they settled for about a month. Due to their financial conditions, “they returned to Iraq,” according to a close friend, Saif Ghanem. “After their return to Basra, they lived in their residence, but the threats remained, so they traveled to Iran and they did not stay much until they returned to Basra.” 

On the night of October 2, 2019, six gunmen linked to The Death Squads killed Hussein with seven bullets and took the life of his wife Sarah, with three bullets, who was three months pregnant.