Italy, US bolster cooperation for recovery of missing WWII soldiers

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of the U.S. World War II Memorial via Atlantic Council

ROME  -  Italy and the U.S. signed a memorandum to improve recovery operations for American military personnel who went missing in action in World War Two and were never accounted for, a statement said on Tuesday.

The conflict saw intense fighting across the Italian peninsula from 1943 to 1945, following the Allied invasion of Sicily and the subsequent campaign to liberate Italy from Fascist and Nazi forces.

Under the deal signed by Italy's culture ministry and the U.S. defence agency for the research of missing military personnel, recovery operations would be improved by steps to ensure the protection of archaeological sites involved in some of the search efforts.   

"The right to research and remember those dead during the war is now combined with the protection of the archaeological heritage for which the ministry of culture is responsible," Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said.

He added that the agreement was a further step in "our decade-long cooperation with the U.S. agency for prisoners of war and missing in action, as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to contribute to our freedom". 

Almost 72,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from World War Two globally, according to the defence accounting agency's official website. 

Since the renewal of recovery efforts in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans who died in the war have been identified and returned to the families, it added.

 (Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Giulia Segreti and Mark Heinrich)