Goodbye Italy!

So now the Italians have left, can anyone tell me which countries remain in Iraq other than the US and UK?


Italians leave Iraq, more bodies found in Baghdad
Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:47 PM BST148
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By Antonella Cinelli

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Italy, the last major Western European ally of the United States and Britain in Iraq, ended its mission on Thursday, handing the province under its control over to Iraqi troops.

Thirty-eight bodies were found dumped in the streets of Baghdad, a toll that has become almost routine in the capital over the past weeks as death squads roam its streets, dragging victims out of homes and shops, torturing and killing them.

A U.N. report released overnight said Iraq was now deadlier than ever, with 6,599 Iraqis dying violently in the last two months, 700 more than in the previous two.

"Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture, including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails," it said.

One Italian soldier died in a road accident during a patrol just hours before the handover of Dhi Qar province, bringing a bitter end to a mission deeply unpopular in Italy.

"A day which we had thought of as a day of joy has instead been marked by the shadow of mourning," Italian Defence Minister Arturo Parisi said at the handover ceremony in a stadium in the provincial capital, Nassiriya, where flags flew at half mast.

Italy was one of the few Western European countries to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 under its then centre-right government, which was voted out of office in April.

The country lost 32 soldiers, including 19 caribinieri police in a single suicide bomb attack that remains one of the deadliest single attacks on U.S.-led troops. Continued...