Smuggled Artifacts Are Returned to Afghanistan as US Troops Prepare to Withdraw

Dozens of artifacts that were smuggled out of Afghanistan during the decades-long conflict there were returned recently. Thirty-three works of antiquity — ranging from a thousand to nearly two-thousand years old — had been stolen from the country. They’d ended up in the United States, where they were identified by anti-trafficking police. The statues and friezes depict images from Buddhism, which was once practiced widely in Afghanistan. They’re now back home at the Afghan National Museum.