An Italian military base in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, was targeted by a missile strike overnight. Italian officials confirmed that troops successfully took shelter and no casualties were reported.
The Iranian state-run news agency خبرگزاری ایرنا (IRNA) echoed these details, directly quoting the Italian Defense Ministry's statement: "A missile hit our base in Erbil and there are no casualties or injuries among Italian forces. They are all fine." IRNA also noted that Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto is in "continuous contact" with the country's senior military commanders regarding the incident.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced via X that the troops had relocated to a shelter following the attack and are "in health and security." This update was widely reported across Iranian Telegram networks, including by IRNA and the reformist-aligned channel حامیان پزشکیان (Pezeshkian Supporters) in a brief update. The breaking news aggregator اخبارفوری خبرفوری جنگ امریکا فوری also highlighted the lack of casualties in a widely viewed alert.
Italian Troop Presence and Regional Conflict There are approximately 300 Italian military personnel stationed in Erbil, whose primary mission is training the security forces of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Al Arabiya Farsi noted. Contextualizing the strike, the Saudi-backed channel framed the incident within a major ongoing regional conflict. They stated that various areas of Iraqi Kurdistan have faced repeated drone and missile attacks "since the start of the United States and Israel's war with Iran on Esfand 9 [February 28]."Al Arabiya Farsi explicitly frames the attack within the context of a 'war' between the US, Israel, and Iran, presenting this recent escalation as a direct driver of the repeated drone and missile attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan.