NASSIRIYA, Iraq Nov 12: A car bomb ripped through an Italian military police base in the Iraqi town of Nassiriya Wednesday, killing at least 17 Italians and eight Iraqis in what appeared to be a fresh suicide attack. The attack came as President Bush and Iraq's U.S. governor Paul Bremer discussed ways to speed the handover of power to the Iraqis in a second day of talks in Washington. The blast tore off the front of the three-story concrete building used by the Carabinieri on the Euphrates riverfront, set cars on fire and sent a plume of black smoke into the air. "A truck crashed into the entrance of the military police unit, closely followed by a car which detonated," a spokeswoman for the British-led multinational force in southern Iraq said. Bremer rushed back from Baghdad to Washington Tuesday for talks with top Bush aides on Iraq's future, amid signs of a shift in strategy to accelerate the pace of political change. He disputed suggestions Iraq's Governing Council was failing and said Washington would continue to work with the group. "I don't think it's fair to say the IGC (Iraqi Governing Council) is failing," Bremer told reporters after two days of meetings with Bush and other top administration officials. Senior U.S. officials said one proposal before Bush was to hold some form of elections in Iraq in four to six months to select a new group to write an Iraqi constitution, seen as a crucial step toward moving postwar Iraq to democracy. Washington wants the U.S.-appointed Governing Council to agree a method for drawing up a constitution, which would pave the way for democratic elections and a handover of power. The U.N. Security Council has set a December 15 deadline for the council to schedule a timetable for the political transition. Jalal Talabani, who holds the rotating presidency of the Governing Council, said the best way forward was to install a provisional government without delay The Italian deaths were the first among non-British members of the southern multinational force in hostile fire. Around 2,300 Italian troops are in southern Iraq, many based in Nassiriya which had been relatively calm since the war. Italian and Romanian forces in the city, part of the British-led force, have been generally well received by locals.
Bureau Report