Tens of thousands of antiquities vanished from Iraq after the 2003 US invasion that toppled the country's leader Saddam Hussein. Since then, Iraqi authorities have been trying to track down the nation's archaeological relics with the help of international agencies and have them returned.
The United States is to return over 17,000 ancient artifacts that were smuggled out of Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in a joint press conference with Culture Minister Hasan Nadhim.
Among them is a 3,500-year-old clay tablet inscribed with a portion of the Sumerian epic poem of Gilgamesh. Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it originated in modern-day Iraq and was brought illegally to the US, according to US federal prosecutors.
An agreement was recently concluded between US authorities and Iraq to return items seized from dealers and museums in the United States, underscored Hassan Nadhim.
According to the minister, the recovery was “the largest in the history of Iraq” and the result of months of effort between the government and Iraq's Embassy in Washington.
Iraqi Cultural Heritage Decimated
The US maintained a troop presence in Iraq since March 2003, when tens of thousands of American forces were deployed as part of a larger effort to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Although troops were momentarily withdrawn under the Barack Obama administration, soldiers were eventually redeployed in…
