Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday (July 20) morning and set it on fire ahead of a planned burning of a Quran in Sweden.
According to several media reports, smoke was rising from the Swedish embassy building while several protesters were still present on the scene along with large numbers of Iraqi riot police.
A source familiar with the matter was quoted by Reuters as saying that no embassy staff had been harmed. The source declined to elaborate further.
Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada Sadr. A series of videos posted to the Telegram group, One Baghdad, showed people gathering around the embassy around 1 a.m. on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday) storming the embassy complex around an hour after chanting pro-Sadr slogans. Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy complex.
Quran burning in Sweden
Today’s demonstration was called to protest the second planned Quran burning in Sweden. The development comes a day after Swedish police granted an application for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.
Swedish news agency TT reported that the application says the applicant seeks to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag.
The Swedish news agency also informed that two people are going to participate in the demonstration, according to TT, adding one of the people was the same person who set a Quran on fire outside a Stockholm mosque in June.
Iraq government condemns burning of Swedish embassy in Baghdad
Meanwhile, Iraq has condemned the burning of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad “in the strongest terms”.
The Iraqi government has instructed security forces to conduct a swift probe into the incident and hold perpetrators accountable, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
(With agency inputs)
