"The US tanks were standing in front of the main gate of the Iraq National Museum when the looters broke in from a gate a few yards away. They did not do anything," said Muayyed Said al-Damergi.

"We went up to the soldiers manning the first tank for help and they told us that they had no instructions to interfere," said Damergi, an archaeology professor at Baghdad University.

Iraq's National Museum suffered massive looting after US troops entered Baghdad last Wednesday.

Damergi said that among the artefacts stolen from Iraq's largest archeological museum was the famous 4,000-year-old Sumerian silver "harp from Ur, the Sumerian vase from Uruk and the Akkadian bronze statue of Basitki."

"The looters broke into every single room, even into the storage basements and they smashed whatever was too big to take," he said.

Damergi appealed to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) "to save our archaeological wealth and our museums. This is their obligation in line with the Hague conventions to protect antiquities during conflicts."

Jaber Khalil Ibrahim, head of the General Directorate of Antiquities in Iraq, said that he had been promised protection from US officers whom he had visited at their headquarters at the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad.

"For three days now, nothing has happened. They promised to send tanks and troops and we are still waiting. The museum could still be looted," he said.

SPACE.WIRE