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

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.

"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.

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