Civilian killed in attack on US contractor's car

An explosion struck a US contractor’s company car in southern Iraq today, killing a civilian and wounding two others in the vehicle, an Italian military spokesman in Iraq said.

Maj Marco Mele said he had no confirmation of the nationalities of the vehicle’s occupants.

Italian news agency ANSA said it was a bomb attack.

At the request of US military authorities, Italian military helicopters flew the survivors to a US air base in Talil, which has a hospital, Mele said.

The car was attacked while driving on a road 20 miles south-east of Nasiriyah, the southern Iraqi city where Italy’s military contingent is based.