From the NY Times
November 12, 2003 At Least 15 Italians Among 23 Reported Killed in Attack By TERENCE NEILAN
truck crashed into the entrance of an Italian military police center in Nasiriya, Iraq, today, followed by a car that blew up, leaving at least 15 Italians dead, military police officials in Rome said today.
Up to eight Iraqis were also reported killed, according to news agency reports, but there was no separate confirmation of that.
Of the 15 Italians killed, 11 were military policemen, 3 were soldiers and one was a civilian, the officials said.
A number of Italians and Iraqis were wounded, a British military spokesman said by telephone from Basra today.
The spokesman said he had no breakdown of how many of the dead were Italian or Iraqi. A spokeswoman for the coalition provisional authority in Baghdad said by telephone that 12 had died, but that number was later increased from Rome.
The bomb 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 earlier this year. 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 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 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 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.