Girl's father dies trying to bring her back to UK from Libya

A British girl who fled the fighting in Libya has told how her father died trying to rescue her.

Fatima Taghdi, 17, right, learned of his death only after landing back in the UK having escaped from Tripoli on a Canadian Air Force flight.

Her father Khalid, 45, flew out via Tunisia and Egypt to save her but died in an air strike by Colonel Gaddafi's forces. The father-of seven from Manchester was hit in the throat by shrapnel when rebel-held Brega was bombed two weeks ago.

Fatima, who backs the anti-Gaddafi action, said: "It's a couple of weeks that have changed my life. It's too late for my father But I know that if he was still here he would be happy that lots of innocent lives are going to be saved."

The Whalley Range High School pupil and her father went to visit his mother in January. He came home early, then she was about to leave when the uprising began.