The improvised explosive device caught a team of special forces in the country to help train Iraqi security forces battling the Islamic State group, the ministry said in a statement.

A security source told AFP the attack happened in Makhmur, a town south of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Although some of the soldiers were seriously hurt, their injuries were not life threatening, the ministry said, adding, however, that one of them had had to have a leg amputated.

The five had been quickly airlifted to hospital.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had been informed and the prosecutor's office in Rome said it had opened an investigation into "terrorist attacks".