They said 18 men of the elite Tuscania carabinieri airborne regiment left Pisa, central Italy, aboard a C130 aircraft bound for Kuwait. From there they were due to travel overland to Baghdad.

The troops left with relief equipment and an unspecified number of civilian staff.

On April 15 the Italian parliament approved sending the carabinieri to Iraq, as well as a large civilian contingent of doctors, nurses, architects and engineers -- between 2,500 and 3,000 people in total.

The opposition and some members of the governing coalition expressed concern that Italy's constitution forbade it sending without a UN mandate Italian peacekeepers who may be under the same command structure as US and British fighting forces.

The Tuscania special operations force, based in Livorno, Tuscany, has provided service personnel to protect Italian embassies in Albania, Serbia, Colombia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Israel, Afghanistan and Pakistan at times of unrest.

SPACE.WIRE