Iraq reclaims 17,000 looted artefacts from the US in its biggest-ever repatriation

Iraq has reclaimed 17,000 artefacts in the country's largest repatriation of looted antiquities.

Thousands of clay tablets and seals, artefacts from Mesopotamia, were part of the largest-ever repatriation of looted Iraqi antiquities.

Archaeologists suspect the collection came from a looted archaeological site in the south of Iraq.

The archaeological artefacts were returned to the custody of The Iraqi Culture Ministry by a museum and an Ivy League university.

Around 12,000 of the items had been held by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Over 5,000 of the other pieces, from a previously unknown Sumerian city of Garsana, had been held by Cornell University.