Iraq commander defends Australians' shooting of woman

CANBERRA - Australian troops have shot and wounded a woman in Baghdad but their commander says the soldiers appear to have acted correctly.

The woman was shot in the head and a boy hurt by broken glass when the car they were travelling in failed to stop as it approached a checkpoint in the Iraqi capital yesterday.

The commander of Australian forces in Iraq, Air Commodore Greg Evans, said a preliminary investigation had found the troops did not overreact.

"We have done a quick assessment of the actions that were carried out by the soldiers and given the circumstances, our first assessment is it looks as if the actions of the soldiers on the ground were appropriate," he told ABC radio.

The male driver of the car ignored repeated directions in Arabic to stop, Evans said.

"When they believed themselves to be in danger from the vehicle (the Australians) engaged it with small arms fire.

"The driver briefly emerged from the vehicle then got back in and reversed away in the opposite direction at high speed and the vehicle then disappeared."

Australian troops had managed to track down the woman, who had been taken to an Iraqi hospital by her family.

Evans said she was now recovering at an American military hospital within Baghdad's international zone.

The boy has been released from hospital after glass was removed from a wound under an eye.

It was not known why the driver refused to stop at the checkpoint, Evans said.

- AAP