Italy Deploys Hundreds of Troops to Mosul Dam
Italy has deployed 500 troops to Iraq to protect the 13-kilometer-long dam on the Tigris River, which is being repaired by an Italian company.
The elite 6th Bersaglieri regiment is the first Italian force with a mission to combat IS militants should they happen to threaten the lives of 300 Italians working on the maintenance on Middle East’s second-largest dam, if the evacuation of the dam personnel is not possible, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
The 300 troops will join 1,400 Italian troops already in Iraq on advise-and-train missions.
Italy has the second largest number of troops in Iraq after the US.
Military induced damages to the dam and those arising from neglect have been repaired by the Italian company Trevi, which began reparations works at the end of 2016. However, though damages have been repaired, the dam’s instability is a static issue requiring constant attention as the structure was built on unstable grounding called gypsum which erodes in water. This means that the dam’s foundation must be constantly maintained by injecting it with cement.
The Mosul dam is the largest dam in Iraq. In case of a collapse, Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Baghdad are in danger of high flooding.