Protesters Stormed and Set Fire to the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad

Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday and set it on fire to protest an expected Quran burning in Sweden, Reuters reported.

All embassy staff in Baghdad are safe, the Swedish Foreign Ministry press office said in a statement, condemning the attack and stressing the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions.

Thursday's demonstration was organized by supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr to protest a planned burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked to the influential cleric.

Rioters are currently Storming and have set Fire to the Swedish Embassy in the Iraqi Capital of Baghdad. pic.twitter.com/SUDGCP2W4V

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 20, 2023

Swedish news agency TT reported on Wednesday that Swedish police granted a request for a public gathering outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.

The application said the applicant wanted to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag, TT reported.

A series of videos posted to the Telegram group showed people gathering around the Swedish embassy around 1 a.m. Thursday, chanting slogans in support of Sadr and storming the embassy compound about an hour later.

"Yes, yes to the Quran," chanted the protesters.

Videos later showed smoke rising from a building in the embassy compound and protesters standing on the roof.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also condemned the incident and said in a statement that the Iraqi government had instructed security forces to quickly investigate, identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Security forces were deployed to the embassy early on...