NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Oct 2 (AFP) - Eight Iraqi customs officers have been found dead and the valuable cargo of antiquities they were transporting from southern Iraq is missing, police said Saturday.
"Seven customs officers and their commander, reported missing on September 27, have been found dead in the region of Latifiyah," a Sunni Arab insurgent bastion immediately south of Baghdad, the chief of police in the nearby Shiite majority provincial capital of Hilla, told AFP.
The missing objects are believed to be those recovered on Tuesday by Italian police and Iraqi customs officers after they dismantled a criminal ring trafficking archaeological treasures dating from the Sumerian period some 50 centuries ago.
The police recovered around 70 fragments of stone tablets bearing traces of cuneiform script -- one of the world's oldest -- 12 finely carved vases and a substantial number of coins, bracelets and other pieces of jewellery.
Two men were arrested during the operation and a number of guns seized.
Hilla police chief General Qais al-Mamuri said that the bodies were found burnt after their convoy was attacked and could only be recovered after a skirmish with unidentified armed men.
"The archaeological items were not recovered and the bodies have been taken to hospital," he added.
Customs officers in the southern city of Nasiriyah said on Thursday that they had lost contact with the convoy carrying the recovered objects.
Colonel Jaafar Alwan said then he thought the convoy might have been ambushed and did not exclude the possibility that the traffickers were trying to get back the antiquities.
Italy has about 3,000 troops deployed in the Nasiriyah region as part of the US-led multinational force in Iraq.