Ancient Statues Taken from Syria's National Museum in Damascus

Valuable sculptures and additional items have been removed from Syria's National Museum in the capital, officials say.

The burglary was noticed on Monday, when employees apparently found that an entrance had been forced from the inside.

The multiple missing statues were marble creations and traced back to the Roman era, one official told the news agency.

The nation's antiquities authority said it had initiated an inquiry to determine the "circumstances surrounding the theft of a number of exhibits", and that actions had been implemented to enhance security and surveillance.

The chief of internal security in the Damascus region, Security Chief Atkeh, was cited by the state-run Sana news agency as declaring that law enforcement were probing the incident, which he said had focused on several "ancient sculptures and valuable objects".

He noted that guards at the facility and other persons were being questioned.

The Damascus Museum, which was established in the early twentieth century, houses the significant cultural treasures in Syria.

It includes ancient inscribed tablets tracing back to the Bronze Age from an ancient city, where evidence of the earliest linguistic system was uncovered; Greco-Roman period Greco-Roman sculptures from Palmyra, one of the most important historical locations of the classical era; and a ancient Jewish temple that was built at Dura Europos.

The facility was forced to close in the early 2010s, a year after the outbreak of the devastating civil war. Most of the holdings was transferred and stored at secret locations to ensure their safety.

It partially resumed in recent years and completely reopened in the beginning of the year, one month after rebel forces overthrew the Assad regime.

Each of the six of Syria's Unesco World Heritage sites were damaged or significantly impacted during the civil war.

The militant faction destroyed multiple religious structures and other structures at the archaeological site, stating that they were un-Islamic. International authorities condemned the damage as a atrocity.

Many artefacts were also lost or taken from dig sites and cultural institutions.