Iraq: Nassiriya was one of the more peaceful places in Iraq ... until yesterday, reports Jack Fairweather
The blackened remains of the truck were illuminated by a ring of headlights from carabinieri vehicles. The nine-foot wide crater from the blast stood in shadows, behind it the ruined remains of the Italian military police headquarters.
The force of the explosion had ripped away the front of the building and flattened the compounds walls.
Stony-faced carabinieri stood watching as investigators, wearing face masks, picked through the rubble. Occasionally they found a body part that they placed discreetly in a plastic bag.
They had long ago given up hope of finding any survivors amid the wreckage, although a fleet of ambulances still stood at hand.
"There was smoke and dead bodies everywhere but what I remember is the smell of burned flesh," said one Italian military policeman, too distraught to give his name. "I came as soon as I heard the explosion. I thought it was the end of the world."
Another military policeman said: "I have just lost two of my best friends in the explosion. We were due to leave Iraq shortly. What will I tell their families when I see them?"
At a quarter to eleven an explosives-packed truck drove up to the gates of the Italian military police compound, in the southern city of Nassiriya. Italian guards shot at it as the vehicle approached but were unable to stop it crashing into the building.
Unused to the violence in Baghdad that has turned coalition headquarters in the capital into fortresses protected by concrete crash barriers, the Italians only had a few rolls of barbed wire and sandbags to protect them.
The truck - driven by two men, said eyewitnesses - careered into a water tanker before detonating. The force of the explosion flung the vehicle 10 metres from the explosion and scattered vehicle parts over a 200-metre radius.
A second vehicle that appeared to be supervising the operation drove hastily away from the scene.
"As soon as I saw the truck I knew there was going to be big trouble," said Lieut Amar Mohammed, who was standing guard at a nearby Iraqi police station.
"I heard the gunshots and then turned to see a massive explosive. I was knocked off my feet. The smoke and the heat were so intense it was impossible to approach for several minutes."
Jassim Reath, a construction worker on a building next to the compound, said: "I lay beneath a broken wall and listened to people screaming, but I was so terrified I could not move until a medic helped me to my feet."
Ambulances rushed to the scene, and ferried the wounded to Nassiriya's central hospital throughout the morning, whilst coalition helicopters flew overhead. Inside the three-storey-building, which had been the base for 80 military policemen, the floors had been demolished and part of the roof was missing.
Twenty metres away, on the other side the street, homes were cracked by the force of the explosion, and pockmarked where they had been hit by flying debris.
Taha Faisal, who lives in the street and was injured by flying glass, said: "We've only just moved back into my family house after it was damaged during the war. Now my two of my daughters are in hospital and my house is in ruins."
As Faisal spoke beside an Italian checkpoint in the security cordon hastily erected around the blast site, a heavy-goods vehicle approached.
Italian soldiers threw themselves on the ground, with rifles cocked.
"Get back or we shoot," shouted one soldier, as the lorry hastily reversed.
"How can anyone live in Iraq during these dark days?" asked Faisal.
As evening fell, locals began to take stock of the arrival of terrorism in their hitherto peaceful city.
Although Nassiriya was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the war, coalition forces had subsequently proved welcomed guests there - in contrast to the daily attacks on US forces in central Iraq.
Abdul Sabar, a clothes-seller near the military compound, said: "The Italians have been quiet and pleasant. We want to tell them that people in Nassiriya support them and want them to stay."
But others criticised the Italians for keeping too low a profile in the city.
"We never see them patrolling or investigating terrorists," said Mohammed Fakkar, an employee with an American contractor.
"I am deeply shocked about the attack today, but I am sure there will be more in the future. The people who did this today can do anything."
At Nassiriya's central hospital, Dr Ghassan Fardil said: "This is a disaster, something sad and terrible which we never thought would happen in our city."