ROME, 15 August 2004 — Security was boosted — but quietly — in Italian cities, ports, train stations, subways and airports yesterday, the day before the deadline runs out from a group linked to the Al-Qaeda network warning Italy to pull its troops out of Iraq or face attack.

After two threats in two months, one of which forecast a “bloodbath” on the magnitude of Sept. 11, police Commissioner Achille Sera said authorities wanted to be prepared — without giving Italians or the thousands of foreign tourists now in the “Eternal City” the feeling they are inside a war zone.

Police and paramilitary troops stood guard outside the Senate, the elegant Piazza Navonna, the nearby Pantheon, the Piazza Venezia, among other Rome landmarks, as well as outside the residence here of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is away at his holiday home on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Heightened controls were also in place at the US Embassy and the world-famous Colosseum. The daily Corriere della Sera said some 200 ambulances and 300 doctors would be on call — and even traffic police were being mobilized, ready for action.

A statement published in an Arabic newspaper on Aug. 1 in the name of Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades threatened to strike Italians everywhere unless Rome withdrew its nearly 3,000 troops within 15 days. The same group claimed responsibility for the bloody March 11 attack on a Madrid commuter train that killed 191 people as well as the November 2003 bombings of British interests in Istanbul in which 25 people died. Though heavier than usual, security was far from the vast deployment put in place during recent anti-war demonstrations in Rome and the June visit of US President George W. Bush.

Officials said some 13,000 potential targets were now under permanent guard by 23,000 police or military troops. Rome contains the vast majority of these, 5,000-6,000 sites in all.

The army alone has mobilized 4,000 soldiers to guard 150 sensitive sites around the country, including Rome’s Fiumicino Airport and the Vatican Radio buildings.

Hordes of Italians were expected to be on the move taking advantage of this last big summer holiday weekend, which coincides with the Aug. 15 Feast of the Assumption, a holy day in this predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Pope John Paul II, one of the Iraq conflict’s most trenchant critics, is away from the Vatican to celebrate the feast at Lourdes in France.

As of Friday night, public access to the quays at the port of Civitavecchia, the port closest to Rome, is forbidden between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. to anyone except passengers holding tickets. Security boats run constant patrols offshore.

Italian hospitals have been put on the alert and authorities on Friday sent around directives ordering fire chiefs to beef up their weekend forces in the seven cities seen most at risk: Florence, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin and Venice.

Not all seemed satisfied with the official discretion. “If we’re in a state of war, they should tell us,” said one firemen’s union.