Re: IRAQ
17 Italians, 8 Iraqis Killed In Attack On Italian Base In Iraq
Italy's paramilitary police - the Carabinieri - mourn the loss of 11 colleagues along with six other Italians in a bomb attack on their base in the Iraqi city of Nasiriya
Italian soldiers of the18th regiment in Iraq
BAGHDAD, November 12 ( News Agencies) - At least 25 people were reportedly killed and 13 others wounded in an attack Wednesday, November 12, on an Italian police base in southern Iraq, as the death toll continued to rise in Iraq with one soldier killed in northern Baghdad and 5 Iraqi civilians shot dead by U.S. troops in Fallujah.
At least 17 Italians were killed in a suicide attack on an Italian base in Iraq Wednesday, Italian spokesman Gianfranco Scalas said, making it the worst single attack on the U.S.-led occupation forces here.
"We have four soldiers, two civilians and 11 carabinieri killed," Scalas told reporters just outside the bombed headquarters in this southern town according to Agence France-Presse (AFP),
The coalition death toll exceeded the 17 U.S. dead in a November 2 missile strike against a Chinook military transport helicopter and marked the first major attack on the U.S.-led forces outside the Sunni Muslim heartlands that spread north and west from the capital.
In Rome, Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino confirmed eight Iraqi civilians had also been killed in the attack, making the total death toll 25.
"The Italian dead numbered 17 -- 11 carabinieri, four soldiers and two civilians. There were also eight Iraqis killed," Martino told the lower house of the Italian parliament.
"Of the 20 Italians wounded, 15 were carabinieri, four were soldiers -- including one in serious condition -- and one was a civilian."
A booby-trapped car exploded in Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, 400km south of Baghdad, causing the casualties, IslamOnline.net's correspondent quoted as saying the spokesman for the Italian forces in Iraq, General Guido Bellini.
The fire gutted the building housing members of the Italian detachment, as several other police agents were reportedly trapped under the rubble.
Fire engulfed several vehicles in a courtyard and an ammunition dump, according to Andrea Angeli, a spokesman for the U.S.-led occupation forces following the powerful early-morning explosion.
Expressing condolences to the families of the dead officers, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said, "we will continue to fulfill our role, at the side of our allies and the United Nations, in the fight against international terrorism," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for his part, said he Italian forces will remain in Iraq despite the attack.
"Our determination is the same as those Italians in uniform who are honoring the coalition engaged in supporting Iraq on its road to democracy," Berlusconi said.
"No intimidation will change our desire to help this country to rebuild and form a government, in security and freedom," he added.
The lower house Chamber of Deputies and the Italian Senate suspended their sessions in mourning on receiving news of the attack.
The Italian mission includes ground troops, members of the air force and police along with three naval ships and 40 Red Cross volunteers.
2 U.S. Soldiers Killed
"No intimidation will change our desire to help this country to rebuild and form a government," Berlusconi
Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad late Tuesday, a military spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"One 1st First Armored Division soldier died and two were wounded in an IED (improvised explosive device) attack in Baghdad," she told AFP.
"Despite best efforts at treatment, one soldier was pronounced dead at 9:00 pm at the 28th Combat Support Hospital. The other two wounded soldiers were taken to the 47th Combat Support Hospital for treatment," she added.
Also Tuesday, "one Task Force Ironhorse soldier was killed and two were wounded when their military vehicle struck an IED northwest of Baghdad," she said.
"The wounded soldiers were treated at a nearby combat support hospital and were returned to duty," she added.
The death raised to 156 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, when Washington declared the war on Iraq effectively over.
They include six who died when a Blackhawk helicopter was shot down near Tikrit on Friday, November 7.
Additionally, the Headquarters of the U.S. occupation forces in the Iraqi capital has come under a rocket attack on Tuesday, the fourth over the past few weeks, IOL quoted a U.S. spokesman as saying on Wednesday.
The spokesman said that at least 4 rockets, presumably Russian-made Katusha rockets, fell on the Green Zone, where the former Presidential Palace, the Conference Palace and Al-Rashid Hotel are located on the western side of river Tigris.
The U.S. spokesman admitted that a number of armored vehicles, parked in the Green Zone, have been damaged due to yesterday night’s rocket attack.
On the other side of River Tigris, an area called Al-Rusafa side witnessed a time-bomb explosion on Tuesday evening that killed 4 civilians and injured 3 others, eyewitnesses said.
The town of Haditha, some 250km west of Baghdad, witnessed a resistance attack on a U.S. convoy on the main road in the town, destroying an army tank, a U.S. spokesman said.
The top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said Tuesday that U.S. forces come under an average of 30 attacks every day.
Iraqis Gunned Down
Elsewhere in the war-torn country, five Iraqi civilians died and four others were wounded when U.S. troops opened fire on a truck at the entrance of the flashpoint town of Fallujah, police said Wednesday.
The U.S. military could not confirm the incident that police said took place late Tuesday in Fallujah, 50km from the capital.
"The U.S. forces had erected a checkpoint at the entrance of Fallujah to catch thieves who have been stealing steel from a nearby factory," police Major Assaad Abdul Karim told AFP.
"When the truck came near the American base at around 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) last night, they apparently thought they were steel thieves, so they opened fire and killed five of them and injured four others," he said.
"This is a wrongful action," he charged.
Abdul Karim said the U.S. forces "asked us to come to their base today (Wednesday) to take the bodies of the five people killed and the four other people wounded."
Khaled Majed Khalifa, who said he lost a son and two grandchildren in the shooting, told AFP: "We are farmers. We buy and sell chicken in the region of Fallujah.
"Yesterday, as usual, my son was with two of my grandchildren and six other people when they were coming from Karma to the east of Fallujah, on a truck full of chickens," he said.
"When they arrived at the entrance of Fallujah, in an area close to a farm where U.S. troops are based, they came under heavy fire from the U.S. troops," he said.
"My son Majed, 37 as well as my grandchildren, Khaled, 10, and Walid, 18, were killed. Two other people were killed," he said.
Fallujah lies in the so-called "Sunni triangle" where U.S. troops come under daily attacks by Iraqis fighting against occupation