(16 Nov 2003)
1. Plane landing
2. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leading out victim's families
3. Plane on tarmac behind honour guards
4. Various of people grieving
5. Press
6. Coffin draped in Italian flag being carried out of plane by soldiers
7. Honour guards
8. Various of coffins draped in Italian flags being carried by soldiers
9. Berlusconi (middle) and officials standing in silence
10. Coffins being carried
11. Soldiers and priest in procession following coffins
12. Coffins being led by Carabinieri
13. Soldiers and relatives walking
STORYLINE:
The remains of 18 Italians killed in Iraq arrived home on Saturday for a few days of morning before a state funeral - a solemn tribute that was testimony to Italy's sense of loss over its worst military disaster since World War II.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, top military and political officials as well as relatives of the dead stood on the rain-slicked tarmac of Rome's Ciampino military airport as the coffins draped in Italy's red, white and green flag emerged from a C130 transport plane one by one.
Carabinieri (Italian police) carried the coffins slowly across the tarmac, passing by a 89-member military honor guard standing in formation.
Family members led by a priest trailed the procession, some of them reciting prayers, others wiping tears away.
The toll from Wednesday's attack in the southern city of Nasiriyah reached 19 on Saturday when a brain dead soldier, Pietro Petrucci, 22, was pronounced dead in Kuwait after his life support system was discontinued.
The deaths of the 19 Italians - 12 Carabinieri, five army soldiers and two civilians - have stunned Italy and created a groundswell of pride in the work the Italian troops were trying to do to help rebuild Iraq.
The attack was the worst Italian military disaster since World War II, and brought the country's first deaths during the deployment in Iraq.
Fourteen non-Italians were also killed, while more than 80 were wounded.
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