US says recovers manuscripts and artefacts in Iraq

11.45am

WASHINGTON - Teams of US customs agents and military have recovered about 700 artefacts and located some 39,400 manuscripts missing from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, customs officials said today.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that teams of ICE special agents were in Iraq working with the US military to hunt down priceless Iraqi treasures missing from the museum since a wave of looting last month as US-led forces ended Saddam Hussein's rule.

US and British forces have been criticised for failing to protect museums and archeological sites during the war even though they had advance warning of the danger to Iraq's historical treasures.

The statement said ICE special agents were deployed to the region before the war began, with some embedded in US military units to conduct investigative operations.

"After reports of looting from Iraqi museums first surfaced, ICE agents in Iraq proposed an immediate art recovery effort with the US military," the statement said.

Once in Baghdad, ICE agents and US military officials worked with Iraqi art curators to catalogue items missing from the museum. ICE agents also began sleeping in the museum to help protect it from further looting.

Among the items believed to be missing from the museum, which housed thousands of rare objects and artefacts from Mesopotamia, were the Vase of Uruk and the Harp of Ur, dating back to between 3000 and 2500 B.C.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft has said there was evidence that organised criminal gangs were behind the looting and vowed that the United States and Interpol would hunt down the thieves and track down the antiquities.

US officials have offered rewards and amnesty for anyone voluntarily returning artefacts.

In addition to items being returned, agents also found that many missing items had been stored for safekeeping in hidden vaults before the war. Several of the vaults have been found in recent days, the statement said.

"In a few of the storage vaults, ICE agents found evidence that certain, select high-value pieces had been stolen," the statement said. It said agents are also following leads about missing Iraqi artefacts turning up in foreign nations and some being offered for sale in Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq