![Iraq History Plundered after US Invasion; From UAE to Israel [Part I]](https://al-sarira.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1_iraqmuseum_ap914997132400.jpg)
A huge restoration of 23 thousand antiquities was just disclosed by the Ministry of Culture in Iraq. The majority of these artifacts were looted amid the American invasion against Iraq two decades ago. This conduct was perceived as a bid to obliterate Iraq’s traditional heritage. The valuable Jewish Collection is still a controversial issue that is frequently disregarded, with some of its contents first arriving in Tel Aviv before traveling to other places.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry office, the intelligence headquarters, and the Iraqi National Museum were encircled by US troops in early April, some weeks ahead of the US invasion and ensuing occupation of the city. While US soldiers moved quickly to capture the oil and intelligence facilities, the National Museum, which was established in Baghdad’s Al-Alawi neighborhood eight decades earlier, had its doors left open.
It was no accident that US soldiers built outposts inside significant historical sites throughout Iraq. These locations included Babylon, which dates to 2300 BC, Ur, which dates to 3800 BC, Hatra, and Nimrud.
According to Iraqi sources, between in a 14-year span ending in 2017, 120,000 antiquities were taken and plundered from Iraq. After the US conquest of Iraq, the majority of these antiquities were plundered. ISIS is also accountable for taking items from the northern city of Mosul’s Museum and certain archaeological sites in places it overran after 2014.
The director of the Iraqi Manuscripts Department and spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, claims that his agency was successful. During three years to recover over 23,000 items. The takeover of the Iraqi Museum was not accidental; organized criminals, notably those from nearby Arab nations, profited from the mayhem.
Organized Burglary
The burglars were acquainted with the design of the museum, its corridors, and even its secret storage spaces. Even the safest places, like a secret area inside the museum, were not immune to larceny.
An ex-employee of the National Museum alleges that pre-hired criminals from Arab nations bordering Iraq assaulted the museum, while American troops stationed in the museum courtyard neglected the move.
The anonymous museum official also stressed that the looting lasted for about 72 hours. “We had a secret room in the museum, in which we keep the precious antique ornaments, and when we returned on April 12, 2003 to the museum, we found that these ornaments had been stolen, even though that room had a hidden door.”
A prior spokesman for the Ministry of Culture corroborated the assertion made by the museum official regarding the participation of other Arab officials outside Iraq. In a statement dating back to 13 years ago, Abd al-Zahra al-Talqani further said that the plundered antiques from Iraq had been smuggled to a neighboring country, referring to UAE, before being transported to America and Europe.
Sundus Muhammad, a specialist in Iraqi antiquities, backed up this claim. In public releases, Muhammad had said that US personnel had helped smuggle Iraqi artifacts out of the country. The incident took place after “controlling the antiquities of Babylon and Akkad, in agreement with the antiquities trafficking mafias.”
The 2017 decision by the US Department of Justice against the American corporation “Hobby Lobby” is one of the most important document linking the UAE in the trafficking of Iraqi artifacts. The business paid sellers in the UAE illegally for 5,500 antique Iraqi relics, then smuggled them into the US and Israel using fraudulent shipping documents, for which it was fined over $3 million.
