Stolen Iraqi artifacts destined for Europe

Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Takfiri group are selling stolen artifacts from a museum in Iraq’s Mosul city to buyers in Europe.
According to Al-Manar, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Culture Qais Hussein Rashid said Wednesday that his ministry had information that the valuable artifacts were now being sold in Europe.
According to Rashid, ISIL was allegedly using such sales to generate money for the armed group. He added that Iraqi authorities were taking measures to retrieve the stolen art treasures.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned ISIL’s “systematic” destruction of Iraq’s cultural treasures.
Also, the Mosul library, home to some 8,000 historical texts, has also been burnt down. It had many hand-written books from the Ottoman, Abbasid and Ayyubid periods.