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On September 21, 2006, Italian forces handed over Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq to newly-trained Iraqi security forces, thus ending their military mission: "The Italian contingent is going back. The mission is accomplished — the security of the province is in your hands", Minister of Defence Arturo Parisi said to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.[72] About a month earlier, on August 23, the Italian contingent stood at 1,600 troops. The 'Garibaldi Brigade' served its final four month tour of duty between May and September 2006, and included mechanized infantry, helicopters and Carabinieri in South Central Iraq, based around Nasiriyah. The original contingent consisted of about 3,200 troops, but on July 9, 2005, former PM Berlusconi announced that Italian soldiers would gradually be withdrawn in groups of 300. New Prime Minister Romano Prodi had pledged to withdraw the troops in his first speech to the senate and called the war "a grave mistake that has complicated rather than solved the problem of security".[73][74] Shortly after, on May 26, 2006, Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema announced that the Italian forces would be reduced from 1,800 to 1,600 by June. On June 8, he said Italy's military presence in Iraq would end before 2007.