ITALY: BODIES OF 18 ITALIANS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING AT A MILITARY COMPOUND IN IRAQ RETURN HOME

Record ID: 358677

  • Title: ITALY: BODIES OF 18 ITALIANS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING AT A MILITARY COMPOUND IN IRAQ RETURN HOME
  • Date: 15th November 2003
  • Summary: (U6) ROME, ITALY (NOVEMBER 15, 2003) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) 1. CARABINIERI MILITARY POLICE LINED UP ON TARMAC 0.07 2. PLANE TAXIING ON RUNWAY 0.11 3. FAMILY MEMBERS WALKING ONTO TARMAC 0.19 4. VARIOUS COFFINS BEING CARRIED OFF PLANE DRAPED IN ITALIAN FLAG AS LAST POST IS PLAYED (3 SHOTS) 1.04 5. SCU: ARMY SOLDIER
  • Embargoed: 30th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VC81I7Y36EQADK8XYGURTXTL
  • Story Text: The bodies of Italians killed in Iraq explosion
    return home.


    The bodies of 18 Italians killed in Iraq in Italy's
    worst military slaughter since World War Two returned home
    on Saturday (November 15) to the tears of family members
    and the salutes of soldiers.

    As a lone bugler played Last Post, the coffins draped
    in their country's flag were taken off a drab green
    military transport plane in an evening drizzle at Ciampino
    airport.

    A priest blessed the wooden coffins with holy water as
    comrades carried them past grieving family members bent in
    pain and military honour guards standing ramrod straight at
    attention.

    As family members prayed the Glory Be, whose finals
    words are rest in peace, Amen, the coffins were placed into
    18 identical black hearses for the drive into Rome.

    Family members will pay their respects on Sunday and
    the bodies will lie in state on Monday ahead of national
    funeral honours on Tuesday.

    Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and top ministers and
    military officials attended the arrival.

    Sixteen of the bodies returned on Saturday were
    military personnel and two were civilians.

    Another solider who had been wounded in the blast at
    the Carabinieri military police base in Nassiriya in
    southern Iraq on Wednesday died in Kuwait on Saturday
    morning, bringing the total of military dead to 17.


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