DHAKA: Iraq’s national museum officially reopened Saturday after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 stolen pieces were recovered.

The much-delayed reopening was brought forward in what officials said was a response to the destruction of priceless artefacts by Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria in the northern city of Mosul.

‘We have been preparing to reopen for the past couple of months, the museum should be open to everyone,’ deputy tourism and antiquities minister Qais Hussein Rashid told the media, reports The Straits Times.

‘The events in Mosul led us to speed up our work and we wanted to open it today as a response to what the gangs of Daesh did,’ he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

BDST: 2013 HRS, FEB 28, 2015