{"word_count": 154, "character_count": 925}
&#60;![CDATA[In the shadows of the charred reading room, Shakur Khozai scooped up a handful of ash, then shuddered and tossed it to the ground. As director of Iraq's national library, he has spent years caring for the nation's collection of rare books and archives. Now, there is little left but soot and broken glass. Many of the 1 million tomes were lost when an Iraqi mob gutted and set fire to the library, a five-storey repository of irreplaceable ancient books, maps and handwritten archives. "They burned the history of this country," Mr Khozai said. "Now we are standing here beginning from zero." [...] There were the ancient Korans, Islamic holy texts that withstood the sacking of the Mongols, only to be burned this week. [...] "We need freedom, yes, but not this freedom," said Abdul Rahmad Hamed, who teaches history at Baghdad University. "This is destruction, and I feel awful for my people." (theage).]]&#62;