Italy has more than 1000 men in Iraq. To report it is a document of the CRS (Congressional Research Service), think tanks which operates in the legislative branch and mainly collaborates with the United States Congress.
In addition to the 450 units that our country has deployed to defend the Mosul dam, other 300 units are engaged in tasks of "Training and Advising Mission Contributions" in the training bases of Baghdad and Erbil, and 260 units are in charge of flight operations of 4 Panavia fighter-bombers Tornado IDS (Interdiction and Strike), 1 tanker Boeing KC-767A, and 2 UAV MQ-1 Predator (aircraft with remote pilotage). These figures are marked as 'approximate' in the document that reports by wire and by sign the complete deployment of forces of the 'International Coalition' which for two years has been taking part in the 'global campaign' with the aim of countering the destruction of the self-styled Islamic State ( known under the acronyms of IS, ISIS, ISIL and in derogatory Arabic Da'esh). It takes into account only and exclusively "unclassified" information as secret.
With sums of money made, of the 66 nations that took part in the joint operation, Italy appears as the fourth contingent by number of units after the United States, France and Australia. The 22 nations that have militarily joined the coalition divide their efforts into 3 core activities: coordinated air strikes, training and equipping local security forces, and special operations. Italy has denied its contribution only in the first of them: "coordinated air strikes", along with Germany, Portugal, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Britain, which after the United States is the most active country in the "cordinated air strike" has 905 men employed in the anti-IS campaign, but only 275 men are in Iraq. The US, after the last announcement of Pentagon secretary Ash Carter, arrived at 4.087 units and to date have invested 6.4 billion dollars in military operations against the IS (an average of 11.5 million per day in the 2016). The Congressional Research Service stresses that "each country is contributing to the Coalition in a manner commensurate with national interests (...). These contributions can therefore be classified as military or welfare. Countries such as Switzerland and Japan, for example, are quoting for donating aid to Iraq worth 9 and 6 million dollars. Italy, in addition to the effort of men and vehicles, has given Iraq weapons worth 2,5 million dollars: machine guns, rocket launchers and 1 million ammunition of various caliber.
According to the US State Department, the 66 states that are currently part of the coalition are: Afghanistan, Albania, Arab League, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, the European Union, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia , Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
(Photo: Army)
