Two Italian soldiers and one Romanian have been killed in southern Iraq after their convoy came under bomb attack this morning.
The Italian defence ministry had previously said three Italian troops and one Romanian had died, but subsequently revised the death toll.
A third Italian soldier was seriously wounded in the deadliest attack suffered by Italian troops in Iraq since a 2003 suicide bombing killed 19 Italians, mostly military, in the city of Nassiriya.
Today’s explosion happened at around 8.50am (4.50am Irish time) on a road southwest of Nassiriya, where the Italian contingent in Iraq is based.
Italy has some 2,600 troops in Iraq which it plans to withdraw by the end of this year.
The deaths could aggravate tensions in Romano Prodi's broad centre-left coalition, which narrowly won this month's general election.
The far left wants an immediate pullout, but the prime minister-in-waiting favours a phased withdrawal.
Sister of vice-president killed
Separately, gunmen have killed the sister of Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi in Baghdad. Meysoun Hashemi was gunned down in her car.
Mr Hashemi's brother was killed on 13 April and the brother of another leading Sunni politician was also kidnapped and killed this month.
Last October, the brother of the other Vice-President, Adel Abdul Mahdi, was also killed.
