DUTCH POLICE HAVE HANDED TO IRAQ THREE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PIECES THAT HAD BEEN STOLEN IN POST-WAR LOOTING, IRAQ'S AMBASSADOR TO THE NETHERLANDS SAID ON TUESDAY, REUTERS REPORTED. SIAMAND BANAA SAID THE STOLEN PIECES -- THREE ANCIENT CLAY TABLETS -- WERE PROBABLY TAKEN FROM A MUSEUM IN IRAQ. KNOWN AS CUNEIFORMS, THE TABLETS BELONG TO ONE OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN FORMS OF WRITTEN EXPRESSION. THEY WERE AMONG MANY VALUABLE PIECES STOLEN FROM THE COUNTRY BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR IN 2003. "THOUSANDS OF ANCIENT ARTEFACTS WERE LOOTED FROM IRAQ AFTER 2003 BUT ALSO BEFORE THE LIBERATION," BANAA SAID. HE SAID POLICE DID NOT GIVE DETAILS ABOUT HOW THEY HAD FOUND THE LOOTED PIECES, BUT SAID THAT THREE IRAQIS WERE INVOLVED. THREE YEARS AFTER THE U.S.-LED INVASION OF IRAQ AND A WIDELY PUBLICIZED BREAK-IN AT THE BAGHDAD MUSEUM, EXPERTS SAY THE COUNTRY IS A HOTBED OF ANTIQUITIES PLUNDERING THAT THREATENS TO LEAVE HUGE GAPS IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF ITS RICH HISTORY.
