Nimrud

Switzerland on May 24 returned to Iraq three important Mesopotamian objects seized during a criminal procedure, Bern said.

During a ceremony at the culture ministry in Bern, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider handed over a partial statue and two Mesopotamian reliefs to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

Iraqi officials on May 11 said Mosul's once-celebrated museum had entered the final stages of restorations ahead of a planned 2026 reopening after being closed to the public for 20 years.

The museum closed its doors in 2003, amid the chaos following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and was later ransacked by Islamic State group jihadists after they seized the city in 2014.

Agatha Christie lived here once, but only memories remain of the time the best-selling crime writer spent among the ruins of the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud.

As Iraqi forces fight to take back Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), archaeologists trained by the British Museum are preparing for another battle; trying to save what they can of the city's heritage.

As Iraqi forces fight to retake the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an artist in nearby Arbil is chiseling at clay in a tiny, unheated studio to recreate historic Assyrian monuments destroyed by the group. 

Iraqi forces have recaptured more than a third of eastern Mosul four weeks into the battle to retake the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Iraqi Interior Ministry's spokesman Saad Maan said Nov. 15.

"More than a third of this [eastern] side has been liberated," Maan said at a televised news conference, according to AFP.

Iraqi archaeologists to be trained in reconstruction of heritage sites under scheme funded by 3 million government grantThe British Museum is to set up a training scheme for Iraqi archaeologists to tackle the aftermath of destruction wrought by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Art Newspaper has reported. 

New York Times attempts to map the strategy behind the Islamic State’s (IS) destruction of ancient historical sites in a piece posted by Sarah Almukhtar. On the one hand, the jihadists want to instill fear into the hearts of its enemies, on the other hand they want to impress would-be recruits to its ranks. They do it all for the glory and the money the article argues.

The United Nations cultural organization has condemned the ?barbaric assaults? the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group launched on World Heritage sites in Iraq and Syria, saying they may amount to war crimes.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists battled Syrian troops near ancient Palmyra May 14, threatening the UNESCO world heritage site with destruction like that which it has already wreaked in Iraq, a monitoring group said.