Italy has vowed to keep its troops and police with the US-led coalition in Iraq despite the deaths of at least 23 people in a suicide bomb attack on Italian forces this morning.
A lorry and a car smashed into the Italian barracks in the southern city of Nasiriyah, killing 17 Italians - 16 military officers and one civilian - and seven Iraqi civilians.
A hospital doctor said a further 59 Iraqis had been injured.
It was the worst attack so far on the US-led coalition.
The soldiers and police are the first Italians to be killed in Iraq. Italy has more than 2,000 military personnel serving in the south of the country.
In a separate incident, an American soldier was killed today in a bomb explosion north of Baghdad.
