ROME, April 27: Four Italian soldiers and a Romanian serving in Iraq were killed on Thursday when a bomb ripped through their convoy near Nasiriyah, in the south of the country.

Leaders across the political spectrum in Italy condemned the attack, which occurred on the eve of the first meeting of parliament following a divisive general election.

Outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had maintained Italian troops in Iraq in the face of strong public opposition, expressed his ‘profound pain’ on learning of the attack.

Centre-left leader Romano Prodi, whose coalition unseated Mr Berlusconi’s in the elections, said the attack was a tragedy that ‘affects all of Italy’.

Italy’s President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi expressed his ‘immense pain and horror’ at the killings.

An explosive device detonated as a convoy of military vehicles passed by on a road southwest of Nasiriyah, the ministry said in a statement.

“One of the vehicles, carrying four Italian soldiers and a Romanian belonging to the multinational force based in Nasiriyah, was hit by the explosion,” the statement said.

Besides the four soldiers killed, two other people were seriously injured, the ministry said.

The Romanian defence ministry in Bucharest confirmed the Romanian soldier’s death in a statement.

The convoy had been travelling to an operational centre where the soldiers were due to start work alongside local security services.

The latest deaths bring to 29 the number of Italian military personnel killed in Iraq since troops were first deployed in June 2003.

Thursday’s attack on Italian troops was the worst since 17 soldiers and two civilians were killed in a suicide bombing of the Italian contingent’s headquarters in Nasiriyah in Nov 2003.

Italy is undertaking a gradual troop withdrawal from Iraq and currently has some 2,600 soldiers in Nasiriyah, while Romania has around 860 in Iraq.

“My thoughts go to the families of the new victims of Nasiriyah. With them, I feel the immense pain at the loss of these young men who were working with honour in the service of the nation,” said President Ciampi, 85, whose mandate ends next month.

“All of Italy embraces the armed forces to mourn our dead. I am confident that those responsible for this vile attack will be identified and brought to justice,” Mr Ciampi said in a statement.—AFP