Antiquities museum reopens in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib

An antiquities museum in Syria’s rebel-held province of Idlib said to house one of the world’s oldest dictionaries reopened on Monday after five years, an AFP correspondent said. Dozens of visitors trickled into the museum in Idlib city to see what an official said represented just a fraction of the building’s collection. Ayman al-Nabu, head of antiquities for the city controlled by an alliance of rebels and jihadists, said the museum had been damaged by air strikes and looting during Syria’s nearly seven-year conflict. After it was closed in 2013, “we carried out maintenance and rehabilitated the museum to give it new life,” he said. Organisers are planning “visits for a whole generation of students who have been unable to visit archeological sites due to the war,” he added.