There was significant damage to the runway, but no Italian soldiers were injured
An Iranian missile attack this Saturday caused “significant damage” to the runway at a Kuwaiti air base which houses Italian air force personnel, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said, according to the ANSA news agency.
“There was significant damage to the runway, but no Italian personnel were injured,” Tajani told reporters.
“The members of the Italian air force at the Kuwait base that was attacked with missiles from Iran are all safe. They were all in the bunker,” he said.
The Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait houses Italian air force personnel who have participated in Task Force Air Kuwait since 2019 for surveillance operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held a telephone conference on Saturday with Tajani and security and intelligence officials.
“At this particularly difficult time, Italy again expresses its support for Iranian civilians who continue to call for respect for their civil and political rights,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement after the meeting.
Meloni “will support any initiative that leads to a reduction in tensions,” the statement said.
Tajani said Italy was ready for an evacuation of Italian citizens still in Iran “if it is timely and not risky.”
Italy has already asked its citizens to leave Iran, but estimates that hundreds still live there, many of them married to Iranian citizens.
*AFP
