Thieves steal nearly $300 mn from Baghdad bank

Baghdad, July 12: Thieves have stolen nearly 300 milliondollar from a bank in Baghdad, police and a bank official said today,in what is probably one of the biggest thefts in Iraq since the 2003war to topple Saddam Hussein.

Police said the thieves were three guards who worked at the private Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad's Karrada district.

They said that when bank employees arrived for work yesterdaynthey found the front door open and the money gone. The guards, whonormally slept at the bank, had also disappeared, they said.

An official at the bank said about 300 million dollars in USdollars had been stolen, as well as 220 million Iraqi dinars (176,000dollars). He declined to give further details.

Police said the Interior Ministry and the Finance Ministry had set up a committee to investigate the theft.

It was not immediately clear why the bank had so much cash on hand, but Karrada is a key commercial district in Baghdad.

Ever since the US-led invasion of Iraq, most transactions havebeen conducted in cash because of limited facilities to transfer moneythrough banks or other financial institutions.

Huge amounts of money were looted from Iraq's banks during the invasion.

Reuters>