Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad on Thursday morning, breaking down its walls and setting it on fire in protest against plans to burn the Holy Quran in Sweden.
The press office of Sweden’s foreign ministry said in a statement that all embassy staff in Baghdad were safe, condemning the attack and highlighting the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions.
Thursday’s demonstration was called by supporters of cleric Muqtada Sadr to prevent the second planned Quran burning in Sweden in weeks.
Sadr, one of Iraq’s most powerful figures, commands millions of followers who he has sometimes called to the streets, including last summer when he seized Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and sparked deadly clashes.
JEE News reported on Wednesday that Swedish police approved a request for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.
The application says the applicant seeks to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag, JEE News reported.
A series of videos posted to the Telegram group, One Baghdad, showed people gathering around the embassy around 1am on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday) chanting pro-Sadr slogans and storming the embassy complex around an hour later.
“Yes, yes to the Quran,” the protesters chanted.
Later videos showed smoke rising from the building of the embassy compound and protesters standing on its roof. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
Quran protests
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the incident and said in a statement that the Iraqi government has instructed security forces to immediately investigate, identify and hold the perpetrators accountable.
By Thursday morning, security forces were deployed inside the embassy, and smoke was billowing from the building as firefighters put out stubborn embers, according to JEE News.
Most of the protesters had withdrawn, with a few dozen milling around outside the embassy.
Late last month, Sadr called for protests against Sweden and the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador after the Quran burning in Stockholm by an Iraqi man.
Swedish police charged the man with incitement against an ethnic or national group. In a newspaper interview, he described himself as an Iraqi refugee who wanted to ban the Quran, Islam’s central religious text.
Two large protests broke out outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad after a Quran was burned, with protesters trespassing on embassy grounds at one point.
The governments of several Muslim countries, including Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco, issued protests over the incident, with Iraq demanding the man’s extradition to face trial in the country.
The US also condemned it, but added that Sweden’s issuance of the permit supports freedom of expression and is not an endorsement of the action.
