Italians leave Iraq, more bodies found in Baghdad
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday September 22, 1:47 AM Reuters
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Italians leave Iraq, more bodies found in Baghdad*
By Antonella Cinelli
NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Italy, the last major Western European ally
of the United States and Britain in Iraq, ended its mission on Thursday,
handing the province under its control over to Iraqi troops.
Thirty-eight bodies were found dumped in the streets of Baghdad, a toll
that has become almost routine in the capital over the past weeks as
death squads roam its streets, dragging victims out of homes and shops,
torturing and killing them.
A U.N. report released overnight said Iraq was now deadlier than ever,
with 6,599 Iraqis dying violently in the last two months, 700 more than
in the previous two.
"Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe
torture, including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical
substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and
wounds caused by power drills or nails," it said.
One Italian soldier died in a road accident during a patrol just hours
before the handover of Dhi Qar province, bringing a bitter end to a
mission deeply unpopular in Italy.
"A day which we had thought of as a day of joy has instead been marked
by the shadow of mourning," Italian Defence Minister Arturo Parisi said
at the handover ceremony in a stadium in the provincial capital,
Nassiriya, where flags flew at half mast.
Italy was one of the few Western European countries to support the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 under its then centre-right
government, which was voted out of office in April.
The country lost 32 soldiers, including 19 caribinieri police in a
single suicide bomb attack that remains one of the deadliest single
attacks on U.S.-led troops.
Its 1,600 troops will be home within eight weeks.
The U.N. report said July was deadlier than August in Iraq, which
Washington say shows a security crackdown in the capital, Baghdad, is
working. But violence has already escalated again in September, with a
surge in death squad killings in Baghdad and a series of bomb attacks in
the north and west in recent days.
On Thursday, gunmen killed six Baghdad police in one attack and three in
another in Baquba. Rockets fell on a Baghdad house killing five, and at
least three bombs in the capital killed at least seven. The U.S.
military reported two soldiers killed.
U.S. commanders predict violence will get worse next week with the start
of the Ramadan holy month, and they say attacks on U.S. troops have also
surged in the last two weeks.
Shi'ite groups criticised Washington for arresting a top aide to radical
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city, Najaf.
"Regretfully, there are foreign powers who carry out dangerous
violations in peaceful provinces," Haider al-Ibadi, a parliamentarian
from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's party, said after Sadr aide Salah
al-Obeydi's arrest.
HANDOVER
Dhi Qar, patrolled by the Italians under British command, was the second
of Iraq's 15 non-Kurdish provinces to be turned over to Iraqis after the
Japanese pulled out of mainly desert Muthanna province, also in the
south, two months ago.
The province also houses a giant, self-contained U.S. air base which
will not be turned over. A task force of 450 Australians will stay there
in case of emergency.
"This is a great day in Iraq's history," Maliki said at the ceremony,
which featured Iraqi troops parading in bright yellow pickup trucks.
The British commander of foreign troops in southern Iraq, Major General
Richard Shirreff, said: "I have great confidence in the security forces
in the province. Both police and army are well led."
Washington and London consider Dhi Qar one of their success stories in a
country where there have been few.
British ambassador Dominic Asquith told Reuters in Baghdad Dhi Qar's
politics were now calm, two years after considerable violence against
Italian troops, with the governor having a better rapport with other
officials than in other provinces.
Britain has also pulled out of its main base in a third province,
Maysan, leaving British troops in the south largely confined to the area
around Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
In Maysan and Muthanna, the bases that were evacuated by foreign troops
were promised to Iraqi forces but were ransacked by looters within hours
of the foreigners leaving.
(Additional reporting by Peter Graff in Baghdad)