Italy ‘to discuss bombing Iraq with allies’

Italy’s Defense Ministry says the country is to discuss with its allies whether to join the United States-led coalition that is conducting airstrikes against alleged Daesh targets in Iraq.

Responding to a newspaper report, the ministry issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the prospect was “to be discussed with our allies.”

The Milan-based Corriere della Sera daily had alleged earlier in the day that Kuwait-based Italian warplanes were due to be ordered “within the next hours” to bomb targets “jointly selected with the American command” in Iraqi territory.

The ministry, however, said this was “just a hypothesis… not a taken decision, which would in any case have to pass through parliament.”

Since August 2014, the United States and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they say are the positions of Daesh in Iraq. The campaign has so far failed to uproot the terrorists.