Italy mourns victims of Nasiriyah bombing

As Italy awaited the arrival of coffins bearing the remains of its dead in the Nasiriyah bombing, the nation was struggling to come to terms with the fact that its forces, sent to Iraq to keep the peace, were now in the thick of a war.

Flowers and messages were placed outside police stations, newspapers announced the launch of fundraising campaigns for orphaned children of the dead soldiers, yet the tragedy brought signs of a changed mood. A bickering Government suddenly discovered a need to be united.

The centre-left Opposition discovered restraint, declining to make political capital out of the tragedy. And a population largely opposed to the war in Iraq discovered some old-fashioned notions. They were there in the messages tied to the flowers outside the Carabinieri headquarters in Rome. "Heroism and valour of the Carabinieri who have fallen for peace," read one. It may not last. By the time the dead are buried in a State funeral, Italy's distaste for military risk may have returned.

But yesterday, in a week when Italy suffered more wartime fatalities than in the past 40 years and 50 more Carabinieri flew off to Iraq to replace their fallen and traumatised comrades, a changed mood was palpable across the country.

Rather than a raucous demand for withdrawal, a snap opinion poll for La Repubblica newspaper, carried out after the massacre, indicated most Italians were in favour of staying in Iraq.

Augusto Minzolini, a journalist with La Stampa newspaper, said: "There is a spirit of national pride in the air which is rare to find in this country. The public is showing a strong emotion of solidarity with the military forces. Instead of blaming the Government, there is a consciousness of sacrifice that has not been found in Italy before."

Fabrizio Cicchitto, one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's advisers, admitted: "Until today, many of us did not realise we were a country at war. Perhaps this drama will wake us up."

Berlusconi himself, according to those who met him in the hours after the news of the bombing arrived, seemed profoundly shocked by the tragedy.

Minzolini added: "An optimist by nature, he is genetically ill-prepared to deal with tragedy." But this particular ill wind promises to bring him several immediate goods. It has given a boost to Italy's international prestige, with the front pages of the world's newspapers cleared for Wednesday's atrocity, and President Bush having a long phone conversation with Mr Berlusconi to express "the closeness of the American people to the Italians" in their hour of grief.

It has also delivered a salutary jolt to Italy's coalition Government, which threatened to disintegrate in January after the end of Italy's turn at the rotating EU presidency, and which has been tearing itself apart since poor regional election results.

- INDEPENDENT