The women were being rushed to hospital in the rebel stronghold of al-Samarra so that Nabiha Mohammed Jassim, 35, could give birth. Fearful of car bombs, the soldiers opened fire when their vehicle, driven by her brother Khalid, took a wrong turn on to a closed military road, police said. “May God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here,” her brother said. US military spokesmen said that the military had tightened its shoot-to-kill orders, but that was of little comfort to the family of Samir Abdullah, 28, who was declared brain dead in January.

Mr Abdullah was in the bakery that he owns with his three brothers when a bomb exploded as a US convoy passed through the town of Rawa, his brother, Ahmed, told The Times yesterday.

The US soldiers shot wildly in reaction, and Mr Abdullah was struck by a bullet. The soldiers took him back to their base and he was flown to the US military’s main combat hospital, Ibn Sina, in Baghdad.

The military told Mr Abdullah’s brothers that he had been moved to Kadhimiya teaching hospital in northern Baghdad. There they were told that Mr Abdullah was brain dead and there was nothing more the military could do for him.

Since then two of the brothers have slept on the floor of Mr Abdullah’s hospital room, refusing to leave him. He lies, eyes wide open, with a tube to drain saliva. His arms move in spasms and then fall still.

“They destroyed our life and we hope that God will take revenge on that torturer who shot our brother,” Ahmed Abdullah said. “Sometimes I say if they killed him, then it’s better than leaving him in this situation without hope.”

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