Iraq attack death toll rises to 24

A suicide bomber devastated the Italian military police headquarters in southern Iraq today, killing at least 24 people – most of them Italians.

The bomber drove a tanker truck into the compound in Nasiriyah, about 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, exploding the vehicle in a ball of flames

Witnesses said the driver got past the gate guards after a car ran a roadblock, distracting the sentries.

It was the deadliest attack suffered by non-American coalition forces since the occupation began in April, and the first in the relatively quiet Shiite Muslim city.

The bombing sent a chilling message that international organisations are not safe anywhere in Iraq.

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

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged that it would not derail his country’s commitment to helping Iraq.

The Pope strongly condemned the blast, calling it a “cowardly attack.”

Defence Minister Antinio Martino confirmed 15 Italians were killed: 11 Carabinieri paramilitary police, three soldiers, and an Italian civilian working at the base.

A coalition spokesman, Andrea Angeli, said eight Iraqis died.

A Briton in a nearby building was injured.

Angeli said the explosion occurred after a truck rammed the gate of the Italian compound and exploded in front of the Carabinieri 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 said secondary explosions from ammunition stored in the compound rocked the area moments after the main blast.

Riccardi said the building exploded 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.

Witnesses in the area said that moments before the bombing, a car ran the roadblock outside the square where the Italian headquarters is located. Guards at the roadblock opened fire at the fleeing vehicle.

At the same moment, they said, an oil tanker ran the roadblock from the opposite direction and rammed into the gate of the building, exploding.

The suicide bomber struck at about 10:40am (7.40am Irish time) at the Carabinieri’s multinational specialist unit, the Italian paramilitary police said in a statement.

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.

Italy has sent about 2,300 troops to help rebuild Iraq. About 340 Carabinieri are based in Nasiriyah, along with 110 Romanians.

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, car and truck bombs have targeted several international buildings in Baghdad, including the United Nations headquarters, the offices of the international Red Cross, the Al-Rasheed Hotel and the Turkish and Jordanian embassies.

Although Nasiriyah has been quiet in recent months, 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.

Italy had suffered no combat deaths during the occupation.

Elsewhere in Iraq:

* US troops in Baghdad accidentally fired on a car carrying a member of the Iraqi Governing Council today. The council member, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloun, escaped injury but the driver was wounded.

* At a roadblock in Fallujah, a restive city west of the capital, troops fired on a truck carrying live chickens last night, killing five civilians.

* An American soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a patrol by the town of Taji north-west of Baghdad, the US military said.

* A 1st Armoured Division soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bombing in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Their deaths bring to 153 the number of soldiers killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.

Earlier today, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said the body was not to blame for the lack of progress in drafting a constitution that would enable democratic elections and a return to Iraqi independence.

The comments by Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd member of the US appointed body, follow reports that President Bush’s national security advisers are frustrated by the council’s performance.

Iraq’s top American administrator, Paul Bremer, was urgently recalled to Washington for talks on how to break the deadlock.

“Such accusations are unreasonable and do no good for the country,” Othman said. “The Governing Council should not alone bear the responsibility of any inefficiency.”