Topic: Italy Completes Troop Pullout

Team Infidel

Washington Times
December 2, 2006 Iraq


NASIRIYAH -- Italy pulled its last remaining troops out of Iraq yesterday, lowering the tricolor flag at its base in the south of a country where 32 of its soldiers have died since the contingent arrived in June 2003.
Defense Minister Arturo Parisi read out the names of each of the Italian fallen, including secret serviceman Nicola Calipari who was fatally shot by U.S. soldiers in March 2005 as he escorted a freed hostage to Baghdad airport.
Under former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Italy deployed the fourth-largest contingent in Iraq with around 3,000 soldiers. But the mission was widely unpopular in Italy and Mr. Berlusconi's successor, Romano Prodi, who won a close-run election in April, decided to pull the troops out by the end of the year. Italy hands control of the area to Australian troops.

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