Swedish embassy in Baghdad set on fire over Quran burning

Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, in a protest against the expected burning of a Quran in Sweden.

According to Reuters, no embassy staff were harmed in this incident. However, when contacted, embassy officials and a Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson declined to comment.

Iraq's foreign ministry issued a statement in this regard, condemning the incident. It said the government has instructed security forces to carry out a swift investigation, identify perpetrators and hold them to account.

Thursday's demonstration was called by supporters of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Sadr to protest the second planned Quran burning in Sweden, Reuters said.

Swedish news agency TT reported on Wednesday that Swedish police granted an application 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.

Two people were set 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 mosque in Stockholm in June.

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," protesters chanted.

Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy complex. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was inside the embassy at the time of the storming.

/KN/MHK/