Iraqi 'Honor Killing' Mother Gunned Down

The ex-wife of an Iraqi man who beat, choked, and stabbed their 17-year-old daughter to death over an innocent crush on a British soldier has been gunned down, the Guardian reports. Leila Hussein had been staying in a series of safe houses while arrangements were being made to flee the country. She was shot to death by three men in a car as aid workers walked her to a taxi that would have taken her to Jordan.

Police say the killing was a sectarian attack, targeting the women activists who were accompanying Hussein. But one said “when we were shot, they focused on Leila, not us,” and Hussein took three of five bullets. She had said she would “prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.” (More Iraq stories.)