Italian police death toll rises to 12

At least 12 Italian military policemen and soldiers were killed today when a suicide bomb ripped through their headquarters in southern Iraq.

At least eight Iraqis were also reported to have died in the blast.

The truck bomb devastated the three storey building in Nasiriyah – an area under British command – and it was feared some people were trapped under the rubble.

In Rome, Italian officials said at least 12 Italians were killed. A coalition spokesman, Andrea Angeli, said some Iraqis were also killed.

Angeli said the explosion occurred after a truck rammed the gate of the Italian compound and exploded in front of the military police building, which was the former chamber of commerce office.

He said the force of the explosion was so strong that it blew out windows in another building across the Euphrates River. All the vehicles parked outside the stricken building exploded in flames.

Angeli, who was in Nasiriyah, said secondary explosions from ammunition stored on the compound rocked the area moments after the main blast.

He said the scene at the site was chaotic, with Iraqis crowding into the area as rescuers attempted to find any survivors in the rubble.

The blast left a crater 25 feet wide and Angeli said the building did not collapse but all floors have been devastated.

A building across the street housed the offices of the International Corps, a nongovernmental organisation, which also suffered damage.

Angeli said one American, one British and several Iraqi employees were hurt.

“This is the first attack (since the end of active combat) in Nasiriyah and the first against the Italians,” Angeli said.

He said the wounded were rushed to a civilian hospital and the most critically hurt were transferred to a coalition facility. The area was cordoned off by troops, he said.

Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called the bombing a “terrorist act.”

The bomb went off at about 10.40 am Iraqi time (07.40 Irish time) when an explosive-laden truck approached one of the buildings at the Italian compound.

A Carabinieri official in Rome, General Serafino Liberati, confirmed that 12 Italians were dead: nine Carabinieri paramilitary police and three Army soldiers.

Another Carabinieri official, Major Roberto Riccardi, said the building was in flames, and that some Italians may be under the debris, although details were difficult to come by because communication had been severed.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that there are soldiers under the rubble,” he said.

Italy has sent about 2,300 troops to help the reconstruction in Iraq.

About 340 Carabinieri are based in the Nasiriyah camp, along with 110 Romanians, training Iraqi police. Everyone was believed to have been inside the building at the time of the blast, because it occurred early in the morning, Riccardi said.

Alice Moldovan, a spokeswoman for Romania’s Defence Ministry, said there were no reports of Romanian victims.

Carabinieri are paramilitary police under the Defence Ministry, and frequently serve in international missions such as in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Since August, vehicle bombs have targeted several international buildings, including the UN headquarters, the offices of the international Red Cross, the Baghdad Hotel and the Turkish and Jordanian embassies in Baghdad.

Nasiriyah, a Shiite city, had been relatively quiet in recent months, although it was the scene of heavy fighting during the war. It was where the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in March and where a number of Americans were captured, including Jessica Lynch.

Ciampi said the attack would not deter Italy’s efforts to help the US and other countries in the international fight against terrorism. He is due to travel to Washington shortly to meet with President Bush.

The Italian government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi was a strong US ally during the war, although it sent no combat troops. Berlusconi, however, came under fire from the opposition as well as many in the Italian public who opposed the war, and he was likely to face tough questioning about the fatalities.

Until today, there had been no combat-related fatalities among Italian troops serving in the multinational force.