BAGHDAD –
When police came hunting for a 19-year-old woman they believed had been recruited by al-Qaida to be a suicide bomber in a north of Baghdad, they found she was already dead: Slain by her father, who told police he strangled his daughter out of shame and then cut her throat.
The killing of Shahlaa al-Anbaky, reported by police Friday, appeared to be from an unusual melding of motives — part to defend the family honor](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq#), part to prevent her from joining the militants. But how much of each weighed in her father’s mind remains unclear, with police still investigating the details.
Al-Qaida has been recruiting women for suicide attacks](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq#) because they can pass police checkpoints more easily than men by concealing explosives under an abaya, a loose, black cloak that conservative Muslim women wear. Suicide bombers have been al-Qaida’s most lethal weapon in Iraq, killing hundreds of civilians and members of Iraq’s security forces](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq#).
