This week in the Iraqi city of Basra had been arrested seven people attempting to remove from the country of 228 ancient artifacts. Some of the items were stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad, as evidenced by stamps on them.

Iraq - the cradle of human civilization. It is on their territory many thousands of years ago, was a fertile area of Mesopotamia, the birthplace ancient state Akkad, Babylonia and Assyria. In Iraq, are still thousands of artifacts, which, in connection with the tragic events of recent years, no one protects. After the U.S. invasion in 2003 the country had been illegally removed thousands of ancient treasures. Many of them were stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad, but most were stolen from archaeological sites.

Among the artifacts, detained on Tuesday in Basra - 45 statues of the Babylonian and Sumerian rulers, as well as plates and ornaments. Lieutenant Khalid Munir (Muneer Khalid) said that the criminals are going to bring objects into neighboring Kuwait.

During the war, from the National Museum was looted of about 15 thousand artifacts, which returned only 6 thousand.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Sources: news.yahoo.com , artinvestment.ru