Italian involvement in the Iraq War | |||||||
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Part of Iraq War | |||||||
![]() Italian Army personnel depart Tallil Air Base, Iraq for an early morning convoy escort duty on 28 April 2005 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
over 10,000 | 3,200 Italian soldiers, a Romanian battalion, units of the Portuguese military police | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown, but high | 36 Italian casualties 1 Romanian casualty |
Operation Ancient Babylon (Italian : Operazione Antica Babilonia) was the code name given to the deployment of Italian forces during the Iraq War. Their mission lasted from 15 July 2003 to 1 December 2006. The troops were located in and around Nasiriyah. [2]
Italy lost 36 soldiers during the mission, half of them in the 2003 Nasiriyah bombing against the Carabinieri Multinational Specialized Unit base. Italian forces were assisted by Portuguese and Romanian troops.
In March 2003, the invasion of Iraq was launched by a coalition composed mainly of British and US armies, with soldiers from other countries, including Italy, participating. On 1 May 2003, the “end of combat operations” was declared, even though foreign armies never had full control of Iraq, suffering serious losses inflicted by the Iraqi insurgency.
UN Resolution 1483 of 22 May 2003 approved by the United Nations Security Council calls on all states to contribute to the rebirth of Iraq, fostering the security of the Iraqi people and the development of the nation.
Italy participated in Operation Ancient Babylon by providing forces in southern Iraq, with a main base in Nasiriyah.
On 15 April 2003 the Chambers, through the approval of resolutions, authorized the Government to carry out a military mission in Iraq (called Ancient Babylon) for humanitarian purposes. The parliamentary authorization intervened even before the adoption of Resolution 1483 and in a phase in which the difficulty of control of the territory by the occupying authorities and the Iraqi authorities had not yet clearly emerged.
The Italian mission began on 15 July 2003 and is a military operation for the purposes of peacekeeping (maintenance and safeguarding of peace), which has the following objectives:
competition for the restoration of public infrastructures and the reactivation of essential services;
competition for public order;
The Italian Navy deployed various ships including minesweepers, destroyers and the San Giorgio-class amphibious transport dock that covered the role of flagship. Furthermore, marines and sailors alongside naval pilots given support to ground operations.
The Italian soldiers and the riflemen of the San Marco were deployed in the south Shiite Shi, a relatively quiet area compared to the provinces sunnite and to the capital Baghdad; the main seat of the contingent was the city of Nāsiriyya, the provincial capital of Dhi Qar, where the Italian Barbara Contini was placed by the provisional coalition authority (CPA) at Head of the civil administration in charge of reconstruction.
This did not prevent the Italian soldiers from being the subject of a suicide attack in 2003, in which 19 of the 23 dead were Italian, military and civilian.
Following the 12 November 2003 attack on the "Maestrale" base, the situation in Nassiriya of the Italian peace contingent changed, began to make itself felt more present in the province of Dhi Qar, an act not acceptable to the various hostile factions operating in the area, in the case of the faction of Muqtada al-Sadr and his army of the Mahdi, a group believed to be mainly involved in the attack on the carabinieri at the "Maestrale" base.[ citation needed ] At 4:00 am on 6 April 2004 the Italian land contingent, or three companies of the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment, a Regiment "Savoia Cavalleria" (3rd) company and various logistic components of the Ariete Armored Brigade, left the "White Horse" complex to go to guard the access bridges to Nassyriya: "Alpha", "Bravo", "Charlie".[ citation needed ] The units that were involved in this clash fought for 18 hours, the longest firefight that involved Italians since the Second World War, which is why the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment received the war cross for military valor, for the maneuvers carried out on the three bridges in those days of the Ancient Babylon III mission.[ citation needed ]
In Nassiriya, a few months after the attack on 12 November 2003, from 6 April to the end of May 2004, several battles took place between the Italian troops and the Mahdi Army; the Italian military were engaged in the city in several clashes, in which over 30,000 bullets were fired, to control three bridges that allow the passage of the river, in which eleven gunmen were slightly injured; Iraqi casualties were heavy (out of 200), including a woman and two children, and as many injured. In Italy they are known generically as the Battle of the bridges of Nassiriya, even if we refer to three different episodes with clashes between hundreds of Italian soldiers on one side and similar or higher numbers of militiamen on the other; in particular, in the second battle that took place on the night of 6 April, about 500 Italian soldiers and a thousand militiamen were employed; [3] the objective was originally made up of all three bridges, but given the gathering of women and children among the militiamen on the third bridge, the Italians did not take any action to cross it, remaining to guard only one bank. [3] For the occasion, called the Porta Pia operation, various companies from different departments were engaged, including the 11th bersaglieri regiment, a company from the San Marco battalion, a heavy armored squadron Centauro del Savoia cavalry, the GIS carabinieri and the paratroopers (carabinieri, but framed until 2002 in the Folgore Brigade) of the Tuscania regiment. [3] During the fight, the Italian military were also targeted with portable anti-tank rockets of which about 400 were counted, to which they responded with about 30,000 shots of small arms and some missiles, as well as some shots of the Centauro armored vehicles; [3] observers noted how the militiamen had taken several ambulances from hospitals and used them to transport ammunition to their outposts. [3]
The third battle took place from 5 to 6 August 2004, on the three bridges over the Euphrates, named Alfa, Bravo and Charlie (the first three letters of the NATO phonetic alphabet), to restore access to the city by supplies for the citizenship, forbidden by militiamen; the action was entrusted to a reinforced tactical group of the task force called Serenissima. [4] At the time the Libeccio base, which until the attack hosted the Italian operational presence in the city together with the Mistral base, had already been evacuated, but was re-occupied for the occasion by the 3rd company of the Lagunari who presided over it together with the Alfa bridge despite being targeted by mortar bombs and small arms during the approach. [4] On the Italian side, thermal visors and illuminating grenades were used to precisely identify the starting points of the shots, in full residential area and therefore with risk for the population, together with two Mangusta helicopters that from above provided information and protection. This did not prevent an episode that was subsequently investigated by the military prosecutor and articles in the media: a vehicle, which tried to cross one of the bridges by forcing the Italian checkpoint on the opposite access to that of origin, was considered a car bomb and hit by the Italian military who garrisoned it and exploded catastrophically killing passengers including a pregnant woman. [5] According to a reconstruction, the investigation by the Italian military prosecutor found that the vehicle was an ambulance and the explosion was also due to an oxygen cylinder carried on it, but the military interrogated had previously denied having seen flashers and signals of rescue and claimed to have been subjected to gunfire. [5] Subsequently, another reconstruction cited documents published on WikiLeaks that denied the use of firearms from the ambulance but confirmed that it had been transformed into a car bomb and that it did not stop at the checkpoint. [6]
Overall, the battles led to the loss of the "Libeccio" logistics complex and the retreat of the Mahdi army from the city.
The Romanian 26th Infantry Battalion "Neagoe Basarab", known as the Red Scorpions, also participated in the battle in May 2004, being led by lieutenant colonel Nicolae Ciucă. This was the first military engagement of the Romanian Armed Forces ever since the end of World War II. [7] During the battle, the Romanian forces were stationed at the White Horse camp, 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) away from the city and controlled by the Italian 132nd Armored Brigade "Ariete". The Romanian battalion received an order from the Italian general Gian Marco Chiarini, commander of the 132nd brigade, to secure access routes to Nasiriyah, [8] including a bridge over the Euphrates, [7] and prevent the entry and exit from the city of members of the Mahdi Army, commanded by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and which then had over 10,000 soldiers. [8]
Following this, Ciucă and a column of ten armored personnel carriers went to the bridge over the Euphrates on the night of 14/15 May. The force did not include all of the troops of the battalion, as a lieutenant stayed in the camp along some troops to remain as a rapid intervention reserve. The column was attacked two times by Iraqi soldiers with rifles and grenade launchers, to which the Romanian forces replied by opening fire. In the second attack, the commander ordered the troops to dismount and form a defensive perimeter between the road and the railway embankment. After the situation was evaluated, the order was given to clear the area. During the engagement, an RPG-7 hit one of the TABs, which damaged its wheels, leaving it behind the column with only one working wheel. After the fighting ended, the Romanian soldiers returned to base with their APCs suffering only material damage. [7] [8] [9]
Ciucă later admitted having had fear during the battle and that God defended the Romanian troops. Furthermore, Ioan Mircea Pașcu, Minister of Defence of Romania at the time of the battle, said the battle of Nasiriyah helped Romania gain more confidence from the United States. He said in a 2013 interview "That was a moment when soldiers from all over America heard about Romania and, when they went home, talked to their families about Romania". [7]
The following Italian soldiers died in the operation:
The following Romanian soldiers died in the operation:
The Mahdi Army continued to fight on a smaller scale with the operation of guerrilla losing more and more men, means and territories. The mission ended on 1 December 2006. [10]
The Italian Armed Forces encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and are also involved in missions and operations abroad as a combat force. Despite not being a branch of the armed forces, the Guardia di Finanza is organized along military lines. These five forces comprise a total of 340,885 men and women with the official status of active military personnel, of which 167,057 are in the Army, Navy and Air Force. The President of the Italian Republic heads the armed forces as the President of the High Council of Defence established by article 87 of the Constitution of Italy. According to article 78, the Parliament has the authority to declare a state of war and vest the powers to lead the war in the Government.
The Carabinieri are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign policing duties. It is one of Italy's main law enforcement agencies, alongside the Polizia di Stato and the Guardia di Finanza. As with the Guardia di Finanza but in contrast to the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri are a military force. As the fourth branch of the Italian Armed Forces, they come under the authority of the Ministry of Defence; for activities related to inland public order and security, they functionally depend on the Ministry of the Interior. In practice, there is a significant overlap between the jurisdiction of the Polizia di Stato and Carabinieri, although both of them are contactable through 112, the European Union's Single Emergency number. Unlike the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri have responsibility for policing the military, and a number of members regularly participate in military missions abroad.
The Mahdi Army was an Iraqi Shia militia created by Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in 2008.
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq was completed and the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in May 2003, an Iraqi insurgency began that would last until the United States left in 2011. The 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency lasted until early 2006, when it escalated from an insurgency to a Sunni-Shia civil war, which became the most violent phase of the Iraq War.
The Italian Army is the land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China, Libya, Northern Italy against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, Abyssinia before World War II and in World War II in Albania, Balkans, North Africa, the Soviet Union, and Italy itself. During the Cold War, the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the end of the Cold War, the army has seen extensive peacekeeping service and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, recently deployed in UN missions. The headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome opposite the Quirinal Palace, where the president of Italy resides. The army is an all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel.
The Battle of Nasiriyah was fought between the US 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade and Iraqi forces from 23 March to 2 April 2003 during the US-led invasion of Iraq. On the night of 24–25 March, the bulk of the Marines of Regimental Combat Team 1 passed through the city over the bridges and attacked north towards Baghdad. However, fighting continued in the city until 1 April when Iraqi resistance in the city was defeated.
The 2004 Iraq spring fighting was a series of operational offensives and various major engagements during the Iraq War. It was a turning point in the war; the Spring Fighting marked the entrance into the conflict of militias and religiously based militant Iraqi groups, such as the Shi'a Mahdi Army.
The 2003 Nasiriyah bombing was a suicide attack on the Italian Carabinieri MSU headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, south of Baghdad on 12 November 2003. The attack resulted in the deaths of 18 Italian servicemembers, mostly members of the MSU Carabinieri, an Italian civilian, and 9 Iraqi civilians and was the worst Italian military disaster since the Second World War. The attack, labeled a "terrorist act" by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was among a string of many attacks on non-American military international targets in Iraq that occurred shortly after the end of major combat operations, including the Jordanian and Turkish embassies, International Red Cross, and UN facilities.
The Battle of Diwaniya took place in Al Diwaniyah, 180 kilometers (111 mi) south of Baghdad, on 28 August 2006 between the Mahdi Army and the Iraqi Army.
The 1st Carabinieri Paratroopers Regiment "Tuscania" is a special operations unit of the Italian Carabinieri. Together with the 7th Carabinieri Regiment in Laives, the 13th Carabinieri Regiment in Gorizia, and the Special Intervention Group it forms the 2nd Carabinieri Mobile Brigade. The regiment is based in Livorno, and has approximately 550 personnel.
The Battle of Basra began on 25 March 2008, when the Iraqi Army launched an operation to drive the Mahdi Army militia out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The operation was the first major operation to be planned and carried out by the Iraqi Army since the invasion of 2003.
The 2008 Iraq spring fighting was a series of clashes between the Mahdi Army and allies and the Iraqi Army supported by coalition forces, in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad, that began with an Iraqi offensive in Basra.
The siege of Sadr City was a blockade of the Shi'a district of northeastern Baghdad carried out by US and Iraqi government forces in an attempt to destroy the main power base of the insurgent Mahdi Army in Baghdad. The siege began on 4 April 2004 – later dubbed "Black Sunday" – with an uprising against the Coalition Provisional Authority following the government banning of a newspaper published by Muqtada Al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement. The most intense periods of fighting in Sadr City occurred during the first uprising in April 2004, the second in August the same year, during the sectarian conflict that gripped Baghdad in late 2006, during the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and during the spring fighting of 2008.
The Battle of Najaf was a major battle in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The first stage of the battle was fought when the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division fought to surround the town. The second stage was fought when soldiers from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division fought to clear and secure the city.
The 11th Bersaglieri Regiment is an active unit of the Italian Army based in Orcenico Superiore in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The regiment is part of the army's infantry corps' Bersaglieri speciality and operationally assigned to the 132nd Armored Brigade "Ariete". The regiment was formed in 1883 by the Royal Italian Army with preexisting battalions. The regiment served in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War, where it earned a Gold Medal of Military Valor. During World War I the regiment served on the Italian front.
The 1st Bersaglieri Regiment is an active unit of the Italian Army based in Cosenza in the Calabria region. The regiment is part of the Italian infantry corps' Bersaglieri speciality and operationally assigned to the Bersaglieri Brigade "Garibaldi". The regiment is the most often decorated unit of the Italian Army with 14 medals for military valor. The regiment was formed in 1861 by the Royal Italian Army with preexisting battalions. During World War I the regiment's battalions served initially in Libya and then on the Italian front.
The Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU), is a unit of the Italian Carabinieri, dedicated to the military missions abroad, including the military and civilian police tasks, peacekeeping operations, crowd and riot control.
The 18th Bersaglieri Regiment is an inactive unit of the Italian Army last based in Cosenza in Calabria. The regiment is part of the Italian Army's infantry corps' Bersaglieri speciality and was last operationally assigned to the Bersaglieri Brigade "Garibaldi". The regiment was formed in 1917 by the Royal Italian Army for service on the Italian front of World War I, where it distinguished itself in 1917 in the Battle of Caporetto and in 1918 in the Second Battle of the Piave River. For its conduct during the war the regiment became the only Bersaglieri regiment to be awarded a Gold Medal of Military Valor. The regiment was disbanded at the end of 1919.
The 26th Infantry Battalion "Neagoe Basarab", also known as the Red Scorpions, is an infantry battalion of the Romanian Land Forces based in Craiova. It is part of Romania's Multinational Brigade South-East. The battalion has participated in missions in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Its tasks there were building refugee camps and weapons depots or guarding airports, military bases and roads. The 26th Infantry Battalion got its nickname, "Red Scorpions", from allied troops of the United States in 1996 during its mission in Angola, as they encountered many scorpions there.
The 13th Carabinieri Regiment "Friuli Venezia Giulia" is a Regiment of the mobile organization of the Carabinieri, part of the 2nd Carabinieri Mobile Brigade.