BAGHDAD, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Iraq's national museum in Baghdad, notoriously looted following the U.S. invasion in 2003, officially reopened for business Saturday following the release of a video depicting the destruction of ancient artifacts by Islamic State militants in Mosul.
The video, which emerged Thursday, showed IS fighters in the Mosul Museum using power drills, sledgehammers and pickaxes to destroy statues dating back thousands of years, including to the Assyrian Empire. They said the artifacts represented idolatry.