BAGHDAD, Iraq: Protesters set ablaze Sweden’s embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad early Thursday, ahead of a planned burning of a Koran in Sweden, according to AFP.
It is to mention here that Swedish authorities approved an assembly to be held outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm later Thursday (today) when organisers plan to burn a copy of the Koran as well as an Iraqi flag.
Events in Sweden have angered Iraqis, and supporters of the turbulent religious leader Moqtada Sadr have organised today’s protest in Baghdad.
Iraqi riot police used water cannon to disperse the demonstrators away from the embassy while security forces armed with electric batons chased protesters, according to an AFP photographer who was on the scene.
“We are mobilised today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is all about love and faith,” protester Hassan Ahmed told AFP. “We demand that the Swedish government and the Iraqi government stop this type of initiative.”
Some protesters had raised copies of the Koran into the air, while others held portraits of an important religious cleric and the father of Moqtada Sadr, Mohamed al-Sadr.
“We didn’t wait until morning, we broke in at dawn and set fire to the Swedish embassy,” a young demonstrator in Baghdad told AFP on Thursday, before chanting Moqtada’s name.
Sweden’s foreign ministry told AFP its embassy staff in Baghdad were “safe” following the incident.
“The Iraqi authorities are responsible for the protection of diplomatic missions and their staff”, the ministry said, adding that attacks on embassies and diplomats “constitute a serious violation of the Vienna Convention”.
AFP quoted its photographer as having said that several trucks had arrived at the embassy to extinguish the fire after skirmishes between Iraqi security forces and demonstrators had broken out.
It was not immediately clear whether the embassy was empty at the time of the attack or if staff had been evacuated.
‘Urgent investigation’
Iraq’s foreign ministry condemned the embassy torching and called on security forces to identify those responsible.
“The Iraqi government has instructed the relevant security services to conduct an urgent investigation and take all necessary measures to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators,” said the ministry in a statement.
Swedish media reported that Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, had organised the event in Stockholm on Thursday.
Salwan burned a few pages of a copy of the Koran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque on June 28 during Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.
That incident prompted supporters of Moqtada, an influential religious leader and political dissident in Iraq, to storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad the following day.
Moqtada has repeatedly mobilised thousands of demonstrators in the streets.
In the last summer, his supporters invaded Baghdad’s parliament building and staged a sit-in that lasted several weeks. At the time, Moqtada was involved in a political spat over the appointment of a prime minister.
Meanwhile, Iraq has condemned the torching of Sweden’s embassy by demonstrators. Its foreign ministry has also called on security forces to identify those responsible.
“The Iraqi government has instructed the relevant security services to conduct an urgent investigation and take all necessary measures to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators,” the ministry said in a statement. —AFP
