Wounded police return to Italy

By David Willey
BBC correspondent in Rome

The first of 21 Italian carabinieri policemen wounded in the suicide bombing of the carabinieri barracks in southern Iraq arrived back in Rome to a hero's welcome.

They were greeted by Italy's top brass before being transferred immediately by ambulance to Rome's main military hospital.

Preparations are being made for the funerals next week

The remainder will be airlifted back from Iraq over the next 24 hours. Then, the coffins of the 18 soldiers killed in the attack will be transported back to Rome.

They will lie in state at the imposing white marble Victor Emmanuel monument in the centre of the city.

Spontaneous tributes and bunches of flowers have been piling up at police stations across the country and queues formed outside the main carabinieri headquarters as people waited to sign a book of condolences.

A state funeral will take place on Tuesday at the Basilica of St Paul's outside the walls, one of Rome's most venerable churches.

A day of mourning has been declared for Tuesday to commemorate the deadliest attack on Italian armed forces since WWII.

The whole of Italy is grieving over the losses

Meanwhile, a fresh contingent of 75 carabinieri left by air from a secret location in northern Italy, bound for Iraq.

Military sources said the men were due to leave as part of normal rotation plans, but their departure confirmed the government's intention to maintain a full Italian presence in Iraq despite the intimidatory attack.

Some 2,400 Italian soldiers are carrying out mine-clearing, policing and humanitarian work in southern Iraq which is under the overall military control of the British.

Italians are the third largest members of the coalition forces in Iraq after the Americans and the British.