In the midst of the Iraq War, which began with the American invasion in early 2003, Italy intervened alongside its American ally in one of the most sensitive military operations in its recent history: Operation Ancient Babylon. This operation was part of Italy's support to the American-led anti-Saddam Hussein coalition forces.

3,200 Italian soldiers were deployed in one of the most complex military operations since World War II. The Italians were deployed to the strategic city of Nassiriya in southern Iraq, where they established their base of operations. The operation was defined as ‘peacekeeping’, i.e. for humanitarian purposes, with the aim of training the Iraqi security forces and ensuring public order at the local level, but the operational situation turned out to be very different from what was expected.

The coalition forces soon came into conflict with local Shia militias, which started a wearisome guerrilla warfare. On 12 November 2003, the Shia guerrilla war reached its climax with the most tragic attack in recent Italian military history. Two trucks packed with explosives plunged into the Italian army headquarters in Nassiriya, causing an explosion that killed 19 Italians, including 17 military personnel and two civilians. The attack was a shock to Italian public opinion and marked the first and most serious attack against Italian forces by terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda.

After the attack, the Italian contingent adopted a new strategy and began to engage the militia forces in close combat, departing from the previous humanitarian priority. The battle of the bridges of Nassiriya in 2004 marked a key moment in these clashes with a very high death toll for the militia forces and 4 Italian wounded.

The Italian government finally decided to withdraw from the operations in 2006, leaving a dramatic death toll of 33 Italian soldiers killed and several hundred Iraqi militiamen in the field. The operation marked a fundamental and dramatic moment in recent Italian military history.