November 12, 2003
Photo: A burned out car is seen in the foreground as a fire engine sprays water in the direction of Italy's paramilitary headquarters after an explosion in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, Wednesday Nov.12, 2003. A truck bomb exploded at the headquarters killing at least 14 Italians and at least eight Iraqis according to reports. (AP Photo/Alfredo Cunha, Jornal de Noticias)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 23 people — 15 Italians and eight Iraqis — were killed Wednesday when a truck bomb ripped through Italian paramilitary police headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
Officials in Rome of the Carabinieri, as the Italian paramilitaries are known, said others may be trapped under the debris. About 15 people were wounded.
The Arabic satellite-television channel Al-Jazeera said eight Iraqis were killed. A coalition spokesman, Andrea Angeli, said a truck bomb caused the explosion.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called the bombing a "terrorist act." Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed the latest attack would not derail Italy's efforts to rebuild Iraq.
It was the first such attack in the otherwise fairly quiet southern Shiite city since the end of the U.S.-led invasion, and may have been a message that neither foreigners nor Iraqis working with them could be safe anywhere in the country.
In Rome, Defense Minister Antonio Martino confirmed 15 Italians were killed: 11 Carabinieri, three Army soldiers, and an Italian civilian working at the base.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said at least eight Iraqis were also killed. About 15 people were wounded, although their nationalities were not known, Italian officials said.
The explosion hit near the Carabinieri's multinational specialist unit, the Italian paramilitary police said in a statement.
Angeli said the explosion occurred around 10:40 a.m. Iraqi time after a truck rammed the gate of the Italian compound, in front of the base, and exploded in front of the Carabinieri building, which was the former chamber of commerce building.
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 was 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 by telephone.
In another attack, an American soldier from the 1st Armored Division was killed and two more were injured Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol by the town of Taji northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Their deaths bring to 153 the number of soldiers killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.
Italy has sent about 2,300 troops to help the reconstruction in Iraq. About 340 Carabinieri are based in the Nasiriyah camp, along with 110 Romanians.
Alice Moldovan, a spokeswoman for Romania's Defense Ministry, said there were no reports of Romanian victims.
Carabinieri are paramilitary police under the jurisdiction of the Defense Ministry, and frequently serve in international missions such as in Afghanistan and the Balkans.
Since August, vehicle bombs have targeted several international buildings, including the United Nations headquarters, the offices of the international Red Cross, the Baghdad Hotel and the Turkish and Jordanian embassies in Baghdad.
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. The Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities, Pietro Cordone, was in a car that came under mistaken U.S. fire in September in northern Iraq. Cordone's Iraqi interpreter was killed in the shooting.
Earlier Wednesday, Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said the body was not to blame for the lack of progress in drafting a new constitution that would enable democratic elections and a return to Iraqi independence.
This followed reports that Bush's national security advisers are frustrated by the council's performance and are consulting with Iraq's top American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, over how to break the constitutional 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."
Othman, who has been a member of the 25-seat body since it was formed by the U.S.-led occupation authorities in July, acknowledged that the constitutional process was moving too slowly but said Iraq's U.S.-led administration bore much of the blame.
Bremer attended a White House meeting Tuesday with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other key officials.
Administration officials expressed disappointment in the council's work but said Bush was not about to disband it. Many administration officials want to transfer sovereignty after the Iraqis draft a constitution and hold national elections.
The Iraqis have yet to agree on how to choose delegates to draw up a constitution.
One member of the council, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, recommended the group be radically reformed.
"There are deficiencies in (the performance of) the Governing Council, which need radical reform," Barzani told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview published Wednesday.
"Even with these deficiencies, I don't see a better alternative to this council — at least for the time being," said Barzani, who leads the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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