Photos: Italian soldiers’ funeral
The 7-year-old son of Lt. Antonio Fortunato touches his father’s coffin in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. A state funeral was held Monday for six Italian soldiers killed by a suicide car bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, last Thursday. The service was officiated by the military ordinary for Italy, Msgr Vincenzo Pelvi. (Alessandro Di Meo / EPA)
The soldiers’ coffins, draped in Italian flags, are carried inside the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls by fellow members of the elite Folgore unit. Thousands of Italians gathered outside the basilica for the state funeral. (Massimo Perscossi / EPA)
Relatives of one of the slain Italian soldiers watch as the coffins are carried. Italy has deployed about 3,250 troops to the NATO- and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, making it the sixth largest contributor. (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images)
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, right, consoles a relative of one of the slain Italian soldiers. (Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press)
Martin Fortunato, 7, the son of one of the Italian soldiers killed in last Thursday’s attack on a military convoy in Kabul, wears his father’s cap as he salutes during the state funeral. At his side is Gianfranco Paglia, a member of Parliament who was injured during an international peacekeeping mission in Somalia. (Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press)
One of the four Italian soldiers who survived the attack in Kabul attends the state funeral in Rome. (Claudio Peri / EPA)
The “Frecce Tricolori,” the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic team, flies over the basilica as part of the state funeral. (TIZIANA FABI, Tiziana Fabi / AFP/Getty Images)