By Alvise Armellini and Angelo Amante
ROME, March 12 (Reuters) – An Italian military base in Iraqi Kurdistan was hit overnight by an airstrike that caused no injuries, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday, in an incident seemingly related to the ongoing Iran conflict.
Italian officials said they did not know who was responsible for the attack on the base in Erbil, which came amid rising tensions in the region following the war against Iran launched almost two weeks ago by the United States and Israel.
“I express solidarity and closeness to our soldiers, who were unharmed following the attack. Italy is proud of the courage and professionalism they show in working every day for peace and security in the many crisis areas around the world,” Meloni said on X.
Italy has deployed around 300 soldiers in Erbil, mainly to train Kurdish security forces, the defence ministry said on its website. However, their numbers were reduced recently because of the danger from the Iran war.
The ministry initially spoke of a missile attack on Erbil’s Camp Singara Italian base, but sources later said the facility was hit by a drone that destroyed a military vehicle used for logistics.
The sources said the drone may not have been fired at the Italian base intentionally, but rather hit it by accident after losing altitude.
The commander of the base, Colonel Stefano Pizzotti, told the Sky TG24 broadcaster that military staff had been warned of aerial threats and had taken shelter in bunkers hours before the strike.
“We are prepared and trained to deal with situations like these, and the safety of our personnel is always our top priority,” Pizzotti said, adding that the air raid alert had finished but experts were still checking and securing the area.
“It has not been possible to assess the damage to the infrastructure on site, and therefore to quantify what happened,” he said.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, Angelo Amante, Claudia Cristoferi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Crispian Balmer)
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