Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will head to Iraq on Thursday evening for a pre-Christmas visit to Italian troops posted there, her office said.

NATO-member Italy has up to 650 people deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, according to the defence ministry website.

Under operation Prima Parthica, Italy provides staff for multinational commands in Kuwait, Baghdad and Arbil, trains the armed forces and police, and provides administrative support.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, took office in October at the head of a right-wing coalition.

She announced the trip, which she said would include other government ministers, at a meeting with lawmakers, which a spokeswoman later confirmed.

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Baghdad (AFP) Dec 20, 2022
Suspected jihadists on motorbikes stormed a village north of Baghdad late Monday and killed eight Iraqi civilians, officials said. There was no immediate claim for the attack but the village was a focus of resistance to the Islamic State group during its lightning advance through swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014. It came a day after IS jihadists killed nine federal police in an ambush in Kirkuk province further north. "A group of terrorists on motorbikes attacked the village of ... read more