Swedish embassy building during a protest near the embassy hours after it was stormed and set on fire ahead of an expected burning of the Holy Quran in Stockholm in Baghdad on Thursday
All Baghdad embassy staff were safe, the Swedish foreign ministry press office said in a statement, condemning the attack and highlighting the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions.
Thursday’s demonstration was called by supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr to protest the second planned burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden in weeks, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked the influential cleric and other pro-Sadr media.
Sadr, one of Iraq’s most powerful figures, commands hundreds of thousands of followers whom he has at times called to the streets, including last summer when they occupied Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone and engaged in deadly clashes.
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 Holy Quran and the Iraqi flag, TT 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,” protesters chanted. Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy complex and protesters standing on its roof. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
Iraq’s foreign ministry also condemned the incident and said in a statement the Iraqi government had instructed security forces to carry out a swift investigation, identify perpetrators and hold them to account.
By dawn on Thursday, security forces had deployed inside the embassy and smoke rose from the building as fire-fighters extinguished stubborn embers, according to Reuters witnesses. Most protesters had withdrawn, with a few dozen milling around outside the embassy.