Italy is preparing to welcome home soldiers wounded in a suicide bombing in Iraq and is braced for the return of the bodies of 18 men killed in the deadliest attack on its forces since World War Two.
Shock over the bombing, at an Italian Carabinieri base in the southern city of Nassiriya on Wednesday, gave way to solemn mourning as parliament hosted a mass in memory of the dead and plans were made for a state funeral next week.
Some of the 21 soldiers wounded in the attack were due to land at Rome's Ciampino airport in the late afternoon before being transferred to a military hospital, a Carabinieri spokesman said.
The 18 coffins were expected back in Italy on Saturday, he added. They will be laid in state on Monday at the Vittoriano, a huge white marble monument that dominates central Rome and which Italians call "the altar of the nation". The government has proclaimed a national day of mourning for the funeral on Tuesday.
Spontaneous tributes of flowers, children's drawings and thousands of messages were laid at police stations across the country, and hundreds of people queued to sign a book of condolences at the main Carabinieri base in Rome.
"Our soldiers were in Iraq not to take part in a conflict but, as is the Italian tradition, to take part in rebuilding a country after a war," said President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in a speech in Washington.
His words reflected a widespread feeling of horror at an attack on soldiers whom Italians see as "heroes of peace", to quote the front page of Friday's edition of magazine Panorama.
Mr Ciampi, who was due to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday, echoed Mr Bush's call for Iraqis to assume more responsibility in the running of their country, while reaffirming Italy wanted to support Iraq.
Italy sent 50 fresh Carabinieri to Iraq on Thursday to reinforce the depleted Nassiriya contingent, who have been involved in humanitarian and medical aid and landmine clearing.