U.S. Bombers Heading to Middle East Refused Permission to Land at Italian Airbase: Report

Italy refused a flight of American bombers on their way to the Middle East clearance to land at the strategic “hub of the Med” air base, reportedly because Washington had not strictly honoured the terms of its governing treaty on launching strikes from Italian soil, it is claimed.

A flight of “several” American bombers were refused permission to land at Sigonella air force base on Sicily, southern Italy, in the central Mediterranean at an unspecified time in recent days, a report in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera states. Per the report, the aircraft were already in-flight and on their way to the strategic air base when the permission was denied.

Sigonella was built by the United States in the 1950s on land temporarily leased to America by the Italian government. Today, it is an Italian Air Force base on which the U.S. under the guise of Naval Air Station Sigonella is a tenant of