Yesterday in Erbil (Iraq), the change ceremony of the commander of the national contingent in Iraq for the operation "Prima Parthica" took place.
After more than 5 months of intense activity, during which the Italian military mission has repeatedly adapted to the contingent operational needs, General Angelo Michele Ristuccia has left the command to the parigrado Francesco Maria Ceravolo.
An intense period, during which, after an initial exclusively training phase, the mission was enriched with two important pieces for the entire coalition, such as theAir Task Group "Griffon" with tasks of Personnel Recovery , Task Force Praesidium deputy for the security of the safety work on the Mosul Dam; activity, the latter, which required a considerable expenditure of energy and the constant commitment of all women and men of the Italian contingent.
The ceremony took place in the presence of the Italian ambassador in Iraq, if Marco Carnelos, of the deputy commander of the Interforze Summit Operational Command (COI), army corps general Giuseppe Fantuzzi, interior minister and peshmerga minister (interim) of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, mr. Abdul Sultan Karim Sinjari and numerous civil, military and diplomatic authorities.
General Fantuzzi, during the address of greeting to the personnel deployed, congratulated him for the brilliant results achieved and witnessed by the numerous certificates of esteem received both from the coalition forces - of which Italy is the second contributor - and from the government forces. and local military personnel, who recognized in the Italian contingent exceptional qualities of professionalism and competence in every activity carried out.
At the conclusion of his speech, the vice commander of the IOC, in participating in the recognition of the armed forces for the work carried out so far, urged everyone to continue along the road taken, wishing, at the same time to the transferor commanders and the best fortunes for the new challenges that await them.
Italy, in compliance with the resolutions of the UN security council n. 2170 (2014) of 15 August 2014 and n. 2178 (2014) of the 27 September 2014 - issued following the request for relief submitted on September 20 2014 by Iraq's permanent representative to the UN to the president of the security council - deployed between Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad about 950 men and women of all armed forces and, after the American one, constitutes the largest contingent, bearing witness to the profound and concrete commitment that Italy is providing in the struggle against Daesh, which since the summer of 2014 has taken over vast territories in the north of Iraq.
