Italian base in Iraq devastated

At least 23 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya.

Fourteen of the dead were Italian military personnel, while one Italian civilian and eight Iraqis also died.

These are the first deaths to hostile action among the 2,400-strong Italian force in Iraq.

Witnesses spoke of seeing a petrol tanker ram the gates of the compound before exploding in a ball of fire.

The entire front of the three-storey building was ripped off, and there are fears that some of the victims might still be buried in the rubble.

news.bbc.co.uk...

These suicide bombing seem to get more devastating and daring every day.

These strikes are being aimed at disolving the will and moral of those of the "coalition".
The UN was hit...they bagged azz...
The International Red Cross was hit....they have reduced their manpower down to virtually nil...
The US and UK sectors have been continually hit and targeted...
Polish have been hit and targeted....
And now Italy....

These "Acts" are planned to break the coalition up and cause dissent of 'home' public opinions to force each respective nation to pull their trooops out.
From this attack and from reading the comments of each respective nation involved, it seems that they (ie: Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italian, UK, and US) have vowed to keep their troops in Iraq and their willingness to rebuild a "free" Iraq.

This is a continuation of tragedy....not only for the coalition troops there but for the Iraqis themselves....each attack takes the lives of both.




Very sad.


regards
seekerof

This is an unusual occurence for this area of Iraq.
The attack was almost certainly carried out by Saddam loyalists or foriegn terrorists and not anyone from the local populace.
In general, the UK governed sector of Iraq has been peaceful. The population there is far more friendly towards coalition forces and actively aid them in weeding out those who want a return to Saddam's regime.

It is worrying that the perpetarators of this atrocity were able to carry out an attack of this kind amongst a population that sees them as the enemy. There have been instances where people have travelled from the central area of the country to carry out attacks but have been picked up by coailition forces within 24 hours but unfortunately it's impossible to keep them all out due to the size of Iraq.

Attacks like this one are the only way that the old regime and it's allies are able to strike at the Southern areas. Hopefully, better intelligence will help to stop them in the future.

I'm suprised that the "freedom fighters" aren't being more agressive than they are. Such as blowing up that building, then putting snipers/gunners around the area to pick off coalition forces that come to the rescue

Originally posted by DaRAGE
I'm suprised that the "freedom fighters" aren't being more agressive than they are. Such as blowing up that building, then putting snipers/gunners around the area to pick off coalition forces that come to the rescue

It would be very hard for them to mount such an operation in the South.
Conditions there are totally different to those that the US faces in the Central area. The coalition is still generally regarded as friendly in the Southern areas due to the dominance of the Shia population.

Hit and run or suicide attacks are about the only way that coalition forces can be hit in this area. There are instances of roadside bombs but these too seem to be more of a hazard to coalition forces in the Sunni Triangle.

The South of the country (along with the North) is a totally different situation to that which is occuring in and around Baghdad. The worry is that the whole country may be split into three parts.

What a bunch of bastards. I hope the the Italians go on a killing spree on the guerillas, that will teach them a lesson.