Blast at Italian Base in Iraq Reportedly Kills at Least 27

November 12, 2003
By JOHN F. BURNS with TERENCE NEILAN

NASIRIYA, Iraq, Nov. 12 — A gasoline truck crashed through a fence around an Italian military police compound in Nasiriya, Iraq, today, followed by a car that blew up, leaving at least 18 Italians dead, including 2 civilians, a British military spokesman in Basra said today.

Twenty-one Italians were wounded and 12 Iraqis were missing or wounded, the spokesman said by telephone.

A witness to the blast said from a hospital that only one, not two, vehicles were involved. He said he was in sight of the compound gate at the time and believed that someone in the Russian-made truck opened fire at guards and then set off the blast.

Nine Iraqis were reported killed.

In addition to the 2 civilians, Italian fatalities included 11 military police officers and 4 soldiers, the Italian defense minister, Antonio Martino, said in Parliament in Rome. Mr. Martino put the number of Iraqi wounded at 25.

Tonight reporters were kept some 500 yards from the compound, but it was possible to see that the building had been largely destroyed. A great deal of rubble was visible as well as the remains of the attack vehicle.

When the Americans took Nasiriya after a tough battle on their drive north to Baghdad, the building, housing the Chamber of Commerce, was used by the Marine Corps as its headquarters.

Later the building, in a middle-class area, was handed over to the Italians and Romanians.

Under the Americans, who were welcome by the local people, security was extremely tight, with even traffic rules being enforced, residents said today.

The Italians were also welcomed and liked, for such acts as handing out candy to children, but they were widely criticized by the same people for being too relaxed in security, both for themselves at the compound and in the city itself.

Checkpoints erected by the marines were taken down, and approaches to the compound were opened, residents said.

Tonight Italian military police and Romanian forces in armored vehicles were trying to clear the area beyond security barriers for fear there would be other attacks.

Security was extremely jumpy. One Iraqi guard who fired off two shots, apparently by mistake, had his weapon taken away.

The force of the blast was felt up to 1,000 yards away, bringing down wrought-iron gates on houses and buckling other buildings. Wooden doors of other buildings were blown out, ceilings came down, and crockery was thrown around kitchens.

The overwhelming reaction of people in Nasiriya has been against the attack.

The Basra spokesman said casualties had been evacuated to hospitals and coalition forces were at the scene. Local Iraqis assisted with the evacuation of the wounded and the dead, he added.

In Washington, President Bush offered his "deepest condolences" to the families of the victims. "We appreciate their sacrifices," Mr. Bush said at a ceremony in which Lord Robertson, the secretary general of NATO, received the presidential medal of freedom.

The blast, which happened at 10:50 a.m. Iraqi time, threw up a huge plume of dust and smoke and shattered windows hundreds of yards away, Reuters reported. Several houses around the base were badly damaged.

About 2,300 Italian troops are serving in southern Iraq as part of the British-led multinational force based in Basra. Nasiriya, on the banks of the Euphrates River, is about 52 miles northwest of Basra.

Today's blast was the first attack on Italian forces since their arrival in Iraq in July. Last week insurgents shot dead a Polish major serving in a separate multinational force in central Iraq.

The blast is part of a widening pattern of daily attacks by insurgents against coalition forces. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the American commander in Iraq, said on Tuesday that attacks on United States troops averaged six a day when he took command five months ago. In the last 30 days attacks had risen to 30 to 35 a day, he said.

An American soldier was killed on Tuesday, and two were wounded, when their military vehicle struck an improvised explosive device northwest of Baghdad, the United States Central Command said in a statement today. The two wounded soldiers were treated in a hospital and returned to duty.

Officials in Italy were quick to condemn the attack and reaffirm Italian resolve, but a large majority of Italians were against the war in Iraq. When police officers were sent to Iraq after the announced end of hostilities there, the operation was presented to Italians as a strictly humanitarian one with minimal risks.

Political analysts in Italy said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would now face pressure from Italian voters to get those police officers out of harm's way — meaning out of Iraq — but that he would not be likely to yield to it just yet, given the closeness of the Italian government's relationship to the United States.

Indeed, Mr. Berlusconi said that "no intimidation by a bombing will budge us from our willingness to help that country rise up again and rebuild itself with self-government, security and freedom."

He added: "Pain is at this time a feeling shared by the entire nation. But we also feel pride for the courage and humanity with which our troops have worked and still work to make the situation tolerable for children, women, the elderly and the weak who live in that martyred region."

During Pope John Paul II's regular Wednesday audience, the pontiff expressed his most firm condemnation for the latest terrorist attack, which he called "a vile attack against a mission of peace."

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said: "My first thought is for the families of carabinieri killed by this ignoble act of terrorism. I express to the carabinieri my complete solidarity. They are soldiers who have fallen as they performed their duty."

An opposition leader, Piero Fassino, said: "It's a grave fact that confirms the barbarous nature of terrorism, for which there can be no justification."

He said the attack showed that more than ever there was an urgent need to transfer political power into the hands of Iraqis, a thought that has been expressed widely across Europe and is believed to be the subject of talks now going on in Washington involving the top civilian administrator in Iraq for the United States, L. Paul Bremer III.

In Rome, the lower house of Parliament observed a moment of silence after news of the attack became known.

Attacks in Iraq have killed at least 154 American and 12 British soldiers since major combat was declared over by President Bush on May 1.

Frank Bruni and Jason Horowitz contributed reporting to this article from Rome.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company