Italy faces threat after military intervention in Libya
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Xinhua, March 23, 2011
Italy is facing the highest threat to national safety following its participation in the military intervention in Libya primarily deriving from the risk of terrorist attacks and infiltrations through the immigration wave across the Mediterranean.
The Italian government fears some form of vengeance by Libyan leader Mouammar Gaddafi on its soil and national alarm is high across the peninsula, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa has repeatedly warned on the threat of bombings in Italy following Gaddafi's menace against foreign countries, especially his former Italian "friends" accused of "betraying" him by taking part in "no-fly zone" operations.
Italy's position is critical. The country has offered the use of seven air and navy bases for the Libyan operation, dubbed " Odyssey Dawn," and has assigned eight combat aircraft to the military operations. Several Italian firefighters have already patrolled Libyan skies.
Despite urging on Monday that the leadership of the military operations in Libya should be under NATO command, risks for Italy remain high.
Italy is thus the closest and most exposed country to Libya and retaliation, as commentator Angelo Panebianco wrote on leading Corriere della Sera daily.
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi guaranteed that Gaddafi's missiles don't have the range to reach Italian shores yet the risk of rockets hitting the sea in front of southern coasts is realistic.
In 1986 Libyan missiles exploded in front of the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Their target was meant to be a U.S. military site on the island as a response to Washington's bombing of Libya.
In Italy, safety levels and controls in airports, ports and borders have been heightened while police helicopters are constantly patrolling the skies. Minister La Russa has repeatedly stressed the risk of "isolated actions" by single individuals.
Italians are worried by suicide bombings in subways. "I'm trying to avoid public transport because you never know what may happen now,"50-year-old Mirella Del Bono told Xinhua.
However, the immigration wave stands as the most concrete and dangerous instrument for terrorist infiltrations.
The mass arrivals of refugees has turned into a national emergency: over 6,000 immigrants coming from Tunisia and Libya are packed on the island of Lampedusa and more are expected to land as the military intervention in Libya continues.
The government fears that a prolonged military mission above Libyan skies might turn into a real war, triggering a situation similar to the one in Iraq and Afghanistan, but this time in a country lying just a few miles from the Italian border, according to local media reports.
Another concrete risk is the kidnapping of the few Italians still on Libyan soil. An Italian tugboat with a crew of eight soldiers, arrested on Sunday, is currently under Libyan armed control in the port of Tripoli.
