Two Iraqi women were shot to death north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired on a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Iraqi police and relatives said one of the women was about to give birth.

A car entered a clearly marked prohibited area near coalition troops at an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings, the U.S. military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

Did they really fail to stop? Was the area really clearly marked? It's still too early to know.

"Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the statement said. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."

You don't shoot at the windshield to "disable" a vehicle.

"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said.

The statement was issued after Iraqi police said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed by American troops while driving to a maternity hospital in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni city 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Good God. Must they always wait until they're exposed to 'release a statement'?

AP Television News footage showed the women's bodies wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital, 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," said a woman who did not give her name but said she was a relative of the victims.

This simply can't go on much longer. The situation is out of control.