ROME, Aug 17 (AFP) - Three members of the Italian military contingent in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, were injured when their patrol was hit by rocket and small arms fire, the ANSA news agency said Tuesday.
It said two suffered slight injuries and were treated at the scene while the third was more seriously hurt and transported to Kuwait, where his life was reported to be not in danger, military medical sources said.
Italian officers in Iraq said the assailants appeared to belong to extremist fringe elements rather than to the forces of the radical Shiite chief, Moqtadr Sadr, according to Ansa.
The 3,000-member Italian contingent was hit by a massive truck-bomb attack last November in which 19 were killed.