Explosion kills 14 at Italian complex

Eight Iraqis were also killed in the blast, Al-Jazeera reported.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A truck bomb rocked the headquarters of the Italian Carabinieri police in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah today, killing at least 14 Italians and possibly trapping others under the debris, Carabinieri officials said in Rome.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called the bombing a "terrorist act" and said it wouldn't deter his nation's resolve to fight terror.
A Carabinieri official in Rome, Maj. Roberto Riccardi, confirmed that 14 Italians were dead: 11 Carabinieri paramilitary police and three Army soldiers.
A coalition spokesman said by telephone from Nasiriyah that a truck bomb caused the explosion and that some Iraqis were also killed. The Arabic language television station Al-Jazeera said eight Iraqis were killed.
Andrea Angeli said the blast occurred after a truck rammed the gate of the Italian compound and exploded in front of the Carabinieri building. He said the force of the explosion was so strong that it blew out windows in another building across the Euphrates River.
Carabinieri Maj. Roberto Riccardi said the building burst into flames, and that some Italians may be under the debris, although details were difficult to come by because communication had been severed.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that there are soldiers under the rubble," he said by telephone.
U.S. soldier killed
In a separate attack, an American soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol by the town of Taji, northwest of Baghdad, Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman of the 4th Infantry Division, said today.
The latest death brings to 152 the number of soldiers killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.
In Nasiriyah, about 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, the explosion occurred at about 10:40 a.m. Iraqi time at the Carabinieri's multinational specialist unit in the southern city of Nasiriyah, the Italian paramilitary police said in a statement. The three-story building, formerly used by the Iraqi chamber of commerce, was devastated.
Italy has sent about 2,500 troops to help the reconstruction in Iraq. About 300 Carabinieri are based in the Nasiriyah camp, along with 110 Romanians.
Everyone was believed to have been inside the building at the time of the blast, because it occurred early in the morning, Riccardi said.
Alice Moldovan, a spokeswoman for Romania's Defense Ministry, said there were no reports of Romanian victims.
Carabinieri are paramilitary police under the Defense Ministry, and frequently serve in international missions such as in Afghanistan and the Balkans.
Targeted
Since August, vehicle bombs have targeted several international buildings, including the United Nations headquarters, the offices of the international Red Cross, the Baghdad Hotel and the Turkish and Jordanian embassies in Baghdad.
It was the first attack in Nasiriyah, a Shiite city, since the end of active combat May 1.
Nasiriyah was the scene of heavy fighting in March, including the deadly ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company in which 11 soldiers were killed and a number of Americans were captured, including Jessica Lynch.
Italian troops serving in the U.S.-led multinational force have suffered no combat-related fatalities.
The Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities, Pietro Cordone, was in a car that came under mistaken U.S. fire in September in northern Iraq. Cordone's Iraqi interpreter was killed in the shooting.