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Killings of Iraqi Civilians Raise Tensions

May 31, 2006

Two Iraqi women, one of them pregnant, were shot by US-led coalition forces on Wednesday after their car failed to stop at a checkpoint. The incident could raise already high tensions after Iraq's prime minister condemned the alleged killing of civilians by US Marines last November.

The US military said two Iraqi women were shot to death in a city north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired at a car that failed to stop at an observation post, according to the Associated Press. The announcement came after Iraqi police said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed by American troops as they were driving to a maternity hospital in Samarra, a Sunni city 100 kilometers north of Baghdad.

Television news footage showed bodies wrapped in sheets outside a hospital in Samarra, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat. "I was with the victims, one of them was pregnant and about to give birth," a woman, who didn't give her name but said she was a relative of the victims, told the AP.

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