Dead Italian soldiers flown to Rome

A military transport plane arrived in Rome today carrying the remains of 18 Italans killed in a car bomb attack in southern Iraq.

They will be buried at a state funeral after a painful few days of national mourning.

Meanwhile, the toll from Wednesday’s attack in the city of Nasiriyah reached 19 today when a brain dead soldier, Pietro Petrucci, 22, was pronounced dead in Kuwait after his life support system was discontinued.

Petrucci’s parents and two brothers had travelled to Kuwait where Petrucci was being treated and decided to stop life support, a Western diplomat in Kuwait said.

The C130 transport plane bringing home 18 of the dead arrived at Rome’s Ciampino military airport shortly after 6pm (1700 GMT) today. Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other officials were on hand.

An 89-member honour guard representing the Italian army, navy, air force and Carabinieri was lined up in formation on the rain-slicked tarmac, where relatives of the victims also gathered. The guards were in full dress uniform, with some of the Carabinieri wearing blue and red-plumed hats and carrying swords by their sides.

State-run RAI and other Italian networks interrupted their regular programming to broadcast the arrival live. TV anchors filled the airtime before touchdown by broadcasting brief biographies of each one of the victims.

Italian television also broadcast images of the farewell ceremony in Iraq at which the coffins, draped in Italy’s red, white and green flag, were blessed by a priest and carried into the belly of the C130. A brass band played while troops in camouflage saluted.

The deaths of the 19 Italians – 12 Carabinieri, five army soldiers and two civilians – have stunned Italy and created a groundswell of pride in the work the Italian troops were trying to do to help rebuild Iraq.

The attack was the worst Italian military disaster since the Second World War, and brought the country’s first deaths during the deployment in Iraq. Fourteen non-Italians were also killed, while more than 80 were wounded.

A second injured Italian was brought to Germany for treatment at a US military hospital today and was in stable condition in the intensive care unit, said Marie Shaw, spokeswoman for the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre. An Italian who arrived yesterday was still in critical condition.

During an audience today, Pope John Paul II greeted the widow and child of one of the slain Carabinieri officers, Vice Brigadier Giuseppe Coletta. The pope blessed the woman, Margherita Coletta, as well as the toddler.

Italy’s government has stressed that it will not retreat from its mission. In fact, yesterday another 100 Carabinieri paramilitary police boarded a plane at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport bound for Iraq as part of a regular rotation, news reports said.

After today’s ceremony, the coffins will be taken to a morgue. They will be laid out at the central Roman Vittoriano palace on Monday, with an 11-hour public viewing scheduled. The following day, state funerals broadcast live on state TV will be held at a Rome basilica.

Tuesday has also been declared a national day of mourning. The Colosseum will turn off its lights, schools will observe a minute of silence, shops will close briefly, workers will pause for 10 minutes – even cinemas will keep their marquees dark that day as a sign of respect.