The Guardian Reports Thousands of rare books and manuscripts in Iraq’s national library and archive, one of the country’s most important cultural institutions, are in peril after the occupation of the building by Iraqi security forces, the library’s director said yesterday.
Saad Eskander, a respected Kurdish historian who has run the library since 2003, told the Guardian that up to 20 Iraqi troops had seized the building at gunpoint yesterday, threatening staff and guards.
“They have turned our national archive into a military target,” he said. “Tomorrow or the day after, the extremists will attack the Iraqi forces there.”
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