A suicide bomber drove a tanker truck into the headquarters of Italy’s paramilitary police in this southern city on Wednesday, exploding the vehicle in a ball of flame and killing at least 24 people, most of them Italians. Witnesses in said the driver got past the gate guards after a car ran a roadblock, distracting the sentries. It was the deadliest attack suffered by non-American coalition forces since the occupation began in April, and the first in this relatively quiet Shiite Muslim city. The bombing sent a chilling message that international organizations are not safe anywhere in Iraq. Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called the bombing a “terrorist act;” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged that it wouldn’t derail his country’s commitment to helping Iraq. Full Story
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