A security force detained Amer Abdullah Najm al-Jumaili, a lecturer at the University of Mosul, on Monday after he alleged in a Facebook comment that state land near an ancient Assyrian site in Nineveh province was being handed to influential figures, a source told Shafaq News.
The kings of Assyria made certain that history would remember them. Their victories covered palace walls, their names filled cuneiform tablets, and colossal stone guardians stood at the gateways of cities built to display their power. For much of modern archaeology, however, the women who shared that royal world remained little more than shadows beside them.
Iraq has recovered more than 80 antiquities that had been stolen or smuggled out of the country, the Ministry of Justice announced on Monday, as Baghdad continues a wider legal and diplomatic effort to reclaim cultural objects lost through decades of theft, trafficking and archaeological looting.
New York -- The persecution of Christians in the Middle East, including Syria, has drawn renewed international attention during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. US President Donald Trump devoted part of his 22 September address to the persecution of Christians around the world.
For Christians in Iraq, remaining in their historic homeland increasingly depends not only on security but also on whether younger generations can find meaningful work and build stable lives, according to Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil.
When Babylonian and Median forces captured Nineveh in 612 BC, they brought down the capital of a vast empire. The years before the siege had been difficult too. A stalagmite from northern Iraq now gives researchers a long climate record that points to repeated drought during Assyria's final century. It is one piece of a larger story. The empire faced war, revolt and a succession crisis.