Explosions rattle Italian embassy in Iraq

"Several mortar shells fell about 50 metres from the embassy but there were no Italian victims," he said in Rome on Thursday.

"We don't know if there were Iraqi victims."

Martino added: "Our intelligence services have for some time been passing us information that an attack against the embassy may be possible. This time there was no harm done."

Italy has 3000 military personnel in Iraq based in the area around the southern town of Nasiriya.

Demands

Following the attack, several members of the Italian opposition again called for Italian troops to be pulled out of Iraq.

Martino did not respond to the opposition's requests. However, he did deny reports that appeared in the Italian military journal, Analisi difesa, that four Mangusta attack helicopters had been sent to Iraq to boost the Italian contingent in advance of elections there in January.

"The Mangustas have not been sent to Iraq and there are no plans to send them," he said.

The A-129 Mangusta is an Italian combat helicopter equipped with anti-tank missiles and a 20mm machine gun.

Five killed

Elsewhere on Thursday, five Iraqis were killed and two others injured by US fire, Aljazeera has learned. The incident took place in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, in the morning after US forces came under separate attacks by unknown fighters.

To the northwest of Mosul city, a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded near an Iraqi National Guards patrol in al-Yarmuk neighbourhood, Aljazeera has learned.

Some of the soldiers in the patrol were injured and two vehicles were destroyed by the explosion.

Aljazeera + Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/72BE9C5E-F9B5-4135-939B-C1031C047A2F.htm