BAGHDAD, April 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A car explosion that killed three Anglo-American forces and injured two others northwest of Baghdad was a "martyr" attack carried out by two Iraqi women, Iraq's official INA news agency reported Friday, April 4.

U.S. Central Command said three U.S. and British soldiers, a pregnant woman and her driver were killed in the explosion Thursday, April 3, night at the checkpoint near Hadithah Dam, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

The Iraqi news agency named the women as Nusha Mjalli al-Shammari and Widad Jamil al-Duleimi.

Al-Jazeera TV channel, meanwhile, broadcast images of the two Iraqi women, but with their names slightly different, vowing to launch attacks in the defense of their country.

"They blew up their car at the positions of the enemy in the west of the country on the night of April 3-4. The martyr operation brought the destruction of nine armored vehicles with their teams on board," INA said.

Iraq has said that the "martyr operation" would be followed by others against U.S. and British troops.

"A pregnant female stepped out of the vehicle and began screaming in fear," said a Command statement Friday, April 4.

"At this point the civilian vehicle exploded, killing three coalition force members who were approaching the vehicle and wounding two others."

The woman and the driver were also killed in the car bombing.

"We are treating it as another desperate act of a dying regime that knows they're in trouble," BBC News Online quoted U.S. Marine Captain Stewart Upton as telling Reuters.

In the first "martyr" operation, Ali Jaafar Musa Hammadi al-Numani, a non-commissioned Iraqi officer, posing as a taxi driver detonated his car at checkpoint manned by American forces near Najaf, killing four U.S. soldiers.

He wanted to "teach the invaders a lesson in the same manner of our Palestinian martyrdom fighters," the Iraqi state television said.

"This is a blessed start. The enemies will face steadfastness, courage and martyrdom's souls," it warned.

Describing the attack, the television said that "after kissing the holy Koran" he "drove a booby-trapped car toward enemy tanks and armored personnel at the outskirts of Najaf."

"He turned himself, his car and the explosives that he is carrying into a destruction missile by exploding himself at 10:15 am (0715 GMT) today," it said.

President Saddam Hussein decided to award the "martyrdom fighter" two top posthumous medals of honor, including the decoration of Umm al-Maarik, or the Mothers of All Battles, as Baghdad calls the 1991 Gulf war, the report said.

Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan later said: "This is only a beginning and you will hear good news in the coming days. We will use any means to stop the enemy and kill the enemy.

"The whole Iraqi people, including its women, will transform themselves into fedayeen (martyrdom fighters)," he vowed in a press conference in Baghdad.

Driven by fears of similar attacks, the Anglo-American forces opened fire at civilian vehicles in several incidents, killing innocent people, mostly women and children.

On March 31, U.S. troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle at a military checkpoint in Iraq, killing seven women and children.

The shooting occurred at a checkpoint manned by soldiers from the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division at Najaf.

The victims, women and children, were in a vehicle that failed to stop despite repeated warning shots fired by U.S. troops. Four people in the vehicle escaped unharmed.

The British Daily Mirror put the number of victims at ten Iraqi women and children.

The victims, in a van, were said to be fleeing fighting at the southern city of Najaf when they came under fire from the 3rd Infantry Division.

American military officials claimed the vehicle was traveling at speed and refused to stop despite verbal warnings and shots fired.

But eyewitness Washington Post reporter William Branigin, embedded with the military unit, said the man who radioed the order for warning shots at the van blamed his fellow troops slow reactions for the tragedy.

He quoted Captain Ronny Johnson as saying to his colleagues: "You just killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough".

Four others in the van, carrying 15, were injured, one fatally.