ROME: An Italian general renowned for commanding peacekeeping missions died in a military helicopter crash north of Rome Thursday that also killed a trainee pilot, emergency services said.

General Giangiacomo Calligaris, 57, who led an army aviation division, perished in the accident along with the 25-year-old flight lieutenant, Paolo Tozzi, according to Italian media.

The AB206 helicopter they were the only occupants in hit high-voltage cables and crashed between the towns of Tuscania and Montalto di Castro.

Calligaris participated in numerous international peacekeeping missions, including heading a parachute brigade in Lebanon.

In the late 1990s, he was part of the Nato-led mission in Kosovo, and went on to coordinate Nato's forces in Afghanistan and Chad, and contributed to the foreign effort helping Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake.