Defense Minister Arturo Parisi arrived in southern Iraq on Friday for a ceremony marking the end of the Italian military mission there, ministry officials said. Parisi arrived in Nasiriyah, capital of Dhi Qar province, where the contingent was based, the Associated Press reported. He was to preside over a ceremony that included lowering the Italian flag, which will return to Italy on Saturday along with Parisi and the 50 or so remaining Italian troops, said Cmdr. Roberto Tomsi of the Defense Ministry in Rome. The previous, conservative government of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi sent some 3,000 troops to Iraq to help with reconstruction efforts after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The contingent was gradually scaled down even before April elections in Italy, and the new governing center-left coalition led by Romano Prodi has been keeping a campaign pledge to complete the withdrawal by the end of the year. Italy formally handed over security responsibility for Dhi Qar province to Iraqi forces in late September. Italy's Defense Ministry has reported 35 Italian deaths in Iraq, including 19 killed in the bombing of a military barracks on Nov. 12, 2003.
