CAIRO, August 1, (IslamOnline.net) - A British soldier in Basra shot an eight-year-old Iraqi girl. The girl died in hospital out of her wounds. The British army paid out £ 390 for her family, provoking a row over the conduct of the British forces in Iraq, a British daily reported Sunday, August 1.

The army paid out the money for the family of Hanan Saleh Matrud who was killed by a British bullet in the northern Iraqi city of Basra, according to the Independent.

The Army admitted the shot "possibly" caused the girl's injury and paid her parents $700, but without pronouncing responsibility for her death.

Defense officials claim such unofficial payments were set after consulting local Iraqi judges, but admit the scheme is now being overhauled.

The British payment had caused a row over the behavior of the British forces in the war-ravaged country.

"Payments like these add insult to the terrible injury her family has suffered. The army seems to have an ad hoc way of valuing a human life." the Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price told the Independent.