Mexican Soldiers Kill Pregnant Woman

CIUDAD JUAREZ - Soldiers shot dead a pregnant woman in northern Mexico as her vehicle, carrying a passenger wounded in a shooting, approached a roadblock where she sought help, local prosecutors said Friday.

The shooting adds to a spiraling death toll of more than 5,300 killed across the country this year, most in suspected drug-related attacks, amid a government clampdown on drug trafficking including the deployment of 36,000 troops.

The four-month pregnant woman had been traveling with her mother and a male family member wounded in a shooting overnight Thursday in Chihuahua state, according to witnesses cited by the prosecutor's office.

"When the woman and her mother approached the area where the soldiers were, to ask for medical help and protection, they began to shoot at the vehicle, that was moving fast, without saying anything," a witness said.