The death of an Italian diplomat in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan yesterday prompted renewed calls for Italy to pull out, with some of the opposition saying the peace mission has become a war in which it should not take part.
The latest attack, in which 15 other people died, brings to about 23 the number of Italians killed in the Nato-led mission, with nearly each death sparking debate in the country which pulled out of US-led operations in Iraq completely in 2006.
Italy has about 2,400 soldiers in Afghanistan compared to more than 70,000 US troops, 9,000 from Britain and 4,400 from Germany, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government plans to send 1,000 more this year as part of US President Barack Obama's planned troop increase.
While Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa praised the courage of Italians "operating in a dangerous territory to improve the lives of the Afghan people", some opposition members said it violated the Italian Constitution to be involved in what had transformed from a peace mission into a foreign war.
"Today is a day of mourning and condolences for the victims' families. Tomorrow we must start work on an exit strategy to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible," said Sen. Francesco Pancho Pardi of the centre-left Italia dei Valori, adding that Afghanistan "is no longer a peace mission".
"News from Afghanistan makes it clear we should immediately withdraw our troops. We're even more convinced it's wrong for Nato soldiers to be there," said Communist Oliviero Diliberto, adding that the Constitution required the country to resolve conflicts by peaceful means.
But the conservative ruling alliance is firmly behind the mission and the centrist Christian Democrats said government and opposition should unite to "vindicate" the Afghan operation.
Without a major change in public opinion on the issue, the opposition is unlikely to succeed in getting Italy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan because Berlusconi's coalition has a comfortable majority in both houses of Parliament.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the diplomat, Pietro Colazzo, was killed when the Taliban staged a car-bomb attack on a hotel in Kabul where many foreign diplomats were staying.
"As well as the car bomb, some terrorists entered the ground floor of the hotel to try to control the whole building. Their attack was repelled, but the bombs went off," said Frattini, who restated his country's commitment to the Afghan mission.
Meanwhile the United States is planning to launch a new military operation later this year to seize Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan from Taliban control, a senior Obama administration official said yesterday.
"If the goal in Afghanistan is to reverse the momentum of the Taliban... then we think we have to get to Kandahar this year," the official told reporters.
Kandahar is Afghanistan's second largest city. A major offensive there follows the current military operation in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in neighbouring Helmand province.
The offensive to secure Marjah, which is now in its third week, is an early test of President Barack Obama's plan to add 30,000 more troops to win control of Taliban strongholds and eventually transfer them to Afghan authority.
Marjah is one of the biggest operations in the more than eight-year-old Afghan war, aimed at driving the Taliban from one of their big strongholds in the country's most violent province.