[Italian
News Agency] AGI


109
Italian Soldiers dead so far from DU [depleted uranium] in Iraq

ROME, Italy (AGI) –
According to the Italian Military
Health Observatory a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium.

The observatory stressed the fact that 41 percent of active personnel casualties relate to disease. According to Domenico Leggiero at the Military Health Observatory,

“The total of 109 casualties exceeds
the total number of persons dying as a
consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying
the significance of such data is purely acting
out of ill faith, and the truth is that our
soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of
adequate protection against depleted uranium”.

Leggiero pointed out the fact that the Senate has to date failed to establish a probe committee on this matter: “it is proof of a worrying lack of oversight on matters which are frankly dramatic”.

Members of the Observatory have petitioned a urgent hearing “in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers”.