Antiquities smugglers arrested in Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi army forces on Tuesday foiled an attempt to smuggle over 160 pieces of antiquities in southern Basra, a local operations commander said. “The forces arrested five persons who were involved in the operation,” Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammed Jawad Huweidi told IraqiNews.com. “The pieces were on their way to leave Iraq for a neighboring country,” Huweidi noted, providing no further details. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. SS (P) 1