"What we repeatedly warned against and worried about has actually happened," Mikhail Shvydkoi told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

"War brings suffering to the helpless, and cultural treasures are just as unprotected as the elderly, women and children," he added.

Looters helped themselves to pottery artefacts and smashed statues at the National Museum of Iraq last Friday.

Iraq, among the earliest cradles of civilisation and home to the remains of Mesopotamian cities Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one of the richest archaeological heritages in the world.

The museum housed a major collection of antiquities, including a 4,000-year-old silver harp from Ur.

SPACE.WIRE