Italians leave Iraq, more bodies found in Baghdad

NASSIRIYA, Iraq - Italy, the last major Western European ally of the United States and Britain in Iraq, ended its mission on Thursday, handing the province under its control over to Iraqi troops.

Thirty-eight bodies were found dumped in the streets of Baghdad, a toll that has become almost routine in the capital over the past weeks as death squads roam its streets, dragging victims out of homes and shops, torturing and killing them.

A UN report released overnight said Iraq was now deadlier than ever, with 6599 Iraqis dying violently in the last two months, 700 more than in the previous two.

"Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture, including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails," it said.

One Italian soldier died in a road accident during a patrol just hours before the handover of Dhi Qar province, bringing a bitter end to a mission deeply unpopular in Italy.

"A day which we had thought of as a day of joy has instead been marked by the shadow of mourning," Italian Defence Minister Arturo Parisi said at the handover ceremony in a stadium in the provincial capital, Nassiriya, where flags flew at half mast.

Italy was one of the few Western European countries to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 under its then centre-right government, which was voted out of office in April.

The country lost 32 soldiers, including 19 caribinieri police in a single suicide bomb attack that remains one of the deadliest single attacks on US-led troops.

Its 1600 troops will be home within eight weeks.

The UN report said July was deadlier than August in Iraq, which Washington say shows a security crackdown in the capital, Baghdad, is working. But violence has already escalated again in September, with a surge in death squad killings in Baghdad and a series of bomb attacks in the north and west in recent days.

On Thursday, gunmen killed six Baghdad police in one attack and three in another in Baquba. Rockets fell on a Baghdad house killing five, and at least three bombs in the capital killed at least seven. The US military reported two soldiers killed.

US commanders predict violence will get worse next week with the start of the Ramadan holy month, and they say attacks on US troops have also surged in the last two weeks.

Shi'ite groups criticised Washington for arresting a top aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city, Najaf.

"Regretfully, there are foreign powers who carry out dangerous violations in peaceful provinces," Haider al-Ibadi, a parliamentarian from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's party, said after Sadr aide Salah al-Obeydi's arrest.

Dhi Qar, patrolled by the Italians under British command, was the second of Iraq's 15 non-Kurdish provinces to be turned over to Iraqis after the Japanese pulled out of mainly desert Muthanna province, also in the south, two months ago.

The province also houses a giant, self-contained US air base which will not be turned over. A task force of 450 Australians will stay there in case of emergency.

"This is a great day in Iraq's history," Maliki said at the ceremony, which featured Iraqi troops parading in bright yellow pickup trucks.

The British commander of foreign troops in southern Iraq, Major General Richard Shirreff, said: "I have great confidence in the security forces in the province. Both police and army are well led."

Washington and London consider Dhi Qar one of their success stories in a country where there have been few.

British ambassador Dominic Asquith told Reuters in Baghdad Dhi Qar's politics were now calm, two years after considerable violence against Italian troops, with the governor having a better rapport with other officials than in other provinces.

Britain has also pulled out of its main base in a third province, Maysan, leaving British troops in the south largely confined to the area around Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

In Maysan and Muthanna, the bases that were evacuated by foreign troops were promised to Iraqi forces but were ransacked by looters within hours of the foreigners leaving.

- REUTERS