US slams deadly attack on Iraqi woman in California

The US State Department said Monday the United States had "no tolerance for wanton acts of violence" like that in which an Iraqi woman was beaten to death in an apparently racially-motivated attack.

Attacked in her southern California home, Shaima Alawadi, 32 and a mother of five, died after she had been taken off life support Saturday at a hospital in San Diego County, US television reported.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and the friends of Shaima Alawadi, who was an Iraqi-American woman who died over the weekend following an absolutely brutal beating in her home in San Diego," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We understand that US law enforcement authorities are investigating all aspects of this horrific crime and taking all possible steps to bring the perpetrators to justice," Nuland said.

"As part of the investigation the authorities are continuing to search for motives behind this attack, but the United States has no tolerance for wanton acts of violence like this," she said.

Alawadi's daughter said a note was left behind that told the family to go back to Iraq and called them "terrorists," US television reported.

The family of the dead woman reportedly came to the United States from Iraq in the mid-1990s.