Baghdad museum reopens 6 years after looting

Iraq's restored National Museum reopened yesterday with a red-carpet gala in the heart of Baghdad nearly six years after looters carried away priceless antiquities as American troops largely stood by in the chaos of the city's fall to US forces.

The ransacking of the museum became a symbol for critics of Washington's post-invasion strategy and its inability to maintain order as Saddam Hussein's police and military unravelled.

What happened
Once the home of one of the world's leading
collections of artifacts, the museum fell victim
to armed thieves who rampaged through the
capital after theu00a0US captured it in April 2003.

About 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the
museum, and the lead US investigator said last year
that trafficking in those items helped finance
al-Qaeda in Iraq as well as Shiite militias.

Eventually, about 8,500 items were recovered in
an international effort.

Of the roughly 7,000 pieces still missing, about 40 to
50 are considered to be of great historical importance.

But Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, chose to look ahead. He called the reopening another milestone in Baghdad's slow return to stability after years of bloodshed.

"It was a dark age that Iraq passed through," the prime minister said at a dedication ceremony after walking down a red carpet into the museum. "This spot of civilization has had its share of destruction."

The museum, which holds artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods, will open to the public today, but only for organised tours at first, officials said.

"We have ended the black wind (of violence) and have started the reconstruction process," said al-Maliki.