Father kills girl who fell in love with Briton

Published on Monday 28 April 2008 00:58

A 17-YEAR-OLD girl has been murdered by her father in an "honour killing" after falling in love with a British soldier in Iraq, it was reported yesterday.

Rand Abdel-Qader, from Basra, was killed after her family found out she had formed a friendship with a 22-year-old infantryman she knew as Paul.

The Ministry of Defence said it could not confirm the story, and did not know who the soldier was, but was trying to find him.

A spokesman said: "Service personnel deployed on operations are given cultural awareness training. However, they are not told, 'don't go and fall in love'."

It is understood the girl, a student of English at Basra University, met the soldier while working on an aid project.

Her father stamped on her and suffocated her then hacked at her with a knife, calling out all the time that his honour was being cleansed, the report said.

He was arrested, held for two hours, then released without charge, it said.