By MATTHEW HICKLEY

Last updated at 00:21 28 April 2008

Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, was killed by her father after falling in love with a British soldier

An Iraqi teenage girl was brutally murdered by her father in an "honour killing" after she fell in love with a British soldier in Basra.

Seventeen-year-old Rand Abdel-Qader told her best friend how she had fallen for Paul, a 22-year-old she met at a charity where she worked as a volunteer.

When her father learned she had been seen speaking to a foreigner he rushed home and butchered her, strangling and stabbing her while screaming that he was "cleansing his honour".

He was arrested, but Iraqi police took no action. His wife has since left him and is in hiding.

The Ministry of Defence was last night trying to trace the soldier. Officials stressed he appeared to have done nothing wrong by befriending the girl.

While there is no suggestion the two had any physical relationship, the case raises questions about the training given to British forces in understanding cultural values in a city where 47 women died in "honour killings" last year.

According to reports from Basra, the soldier was an infantryman with blond hair who last saw Rand in January, a few weeks before her murder.

MoD officials said thousands of troops were in the city at the time. Infantry units included the Irish Guards, the Royal Welsh and The Rifles, but Paul could have been from dozens of other units including engineers, logistics, medical specialists or the TA.

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Her funeral was done without any of the traditional mourning because she was deemed 'impure'. Her uncles were said to have spat on her body

Army insiders said they needed to establish the full facts to help prevent such a tragedy happening again.

An MoD spokesman said troops received "cultural awareness training", including the sensitivities of talking to Muslim women, but this focused on issues such as body searches rather than the potential dangers of striking up friendships.

He added: "They are not told, 'Don't go and fall in love'."

Rand Abdel-Qader confided to her closest friend Zeinab that she fell in love the moment she saw the young soldier at the charity for displaced families, and she dreamed of a future with him.

Rand was studying English at Basra University and was able to chat to him without others knowing what they were saying. Zeinab, 19, said:

"She loved to speak about his blond hair, his honey eyes, his white skin and the sweet way he had of speaking. He was very different from the local men who usually are tough and illiterate.

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The teenager's best friend had tried to hide the presents she was given by the soldier but a friend told her father after he saw the pair together

"I was in heaven when she was speaking about him. Everything looked so beautiful.

"With just a simple, caring smile, he was able to give her the sense of love, making her forget all life in Iraq. But, I always had to remind Rand that she was a Muslim and her family was never going to accept her marrying a Christian, British soldier.

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A gift of love: The cuddly toy

"Unfortunately she never wanted to hear me. Her mind was very far from reality, closer to an impossible dream."

Zeinab claimed the soldier gave Rand small gifts, including a cuddly toy.

Rand said she met Paul only four times, always in public.

According to Zeinab, Paul used to tell Rand about England and promised to show her the sights of London one day.

"But the thing she used to like talking about best was how he praised her beauty and her intelligence. She told me he called her 'princess'."

Despite her feelings, there was no physical relationship. "She never did anything more than talk to him," said Zeinab.

"She was proud to be a virgin and had a dream to give herself to the man she loved only after her marriage."

On March 16 - two months after Rand last saw Paul - her father Abdel-Qader Ali heard from a friend that his daughter had been seen speaking to the soldier at the charity project.

Recalling Rand's murder, her weeping mother Leila Hussein said: "I screamed and called out for her two brothers so they could get their father away. But when he told them the reason, instead of saving her they helped him end her life."

Abdel-Qader Ali stood on the girl's throat until she suffocated and then stabbed her, all the time shouting that his honour was being cleansed.

He was arrested and released within two hours. Sergeant Ali Jabbar of Basra police said: "The father has very good contacts in the Basra government."

Because her family considered her impure, Rand was given only a simple burial. Her uncles spat in her grave to show their disgust.

Two weeks later her mother demanded a divorce from Ali, and she now campaigns against honour killings.

She lives in fear of reprisals. "I was beaten and had my arm broken by him," she said. "No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq."

Rand's friend Zeinab said: "Rand was just a young girl with romantic dreams. She always kept her religion close to her heart. She would never even hurt a petal on a rose."

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