BAGHDAD — Protesters angered by a IraqA man in Sweden who threatened to burn a copy of the Koran stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, invaded the diplomatic compound and started a fire.
Hours later, the Iraqi prime minister severed diplomatic relations with Sweden in protest of the desecration of the Islamic holy book.
Protesters occupied the diplomatic post for several hours, waving flags and banners depicting the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and starting a small fire. The embassy staff had been evacuated a day earlier.
The attack came ahead of a protest by an Iraqi asylum seeker who burned a copy of the Koran during a demonstration last month in Stockholm. He threatened to do the same thing again, but ultimately stopped short of setting the book on fire.
After protesters left the Swedish embassy, diplomats closed it to visitors without specifying when it would reopen.
Following a meeting with security officials, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that Iraqi authorities would prosecute those responsible for starting the fire, citing an investigation of “negligent security officials.”
However, the statement also said that the Iraqi government had informed Sweden on Wednesday that Iraq would cut diplomatic relations if the burning of the Koran continued.
Sudani soon announced the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi chargé d’affaires from Sweden.
The announcement followed an anti-Islamic protest by two men on a lawn about 100 meters (300 feet) from the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. One of them was identified by the Swedish media as Salwan Momika, an Iraqi of Christian origin who lives in Sweden as a self-identified atheist. He stepped on and kicked the Qur’an, but did not set it on fire.
Momika also stepped on and kicked an Iraqi flag, as well as photos of al-Sadr and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some 50 people, including journalists and a handful of counter-protesters chanting religious slogans, watched the demonstration from behind police barricades.
Following Sudani’s protest and announcement, the head of Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission said the agency had suspended Swedish communications company Ericsson’s license to operate in Iraq. The Ministry of Communications said it would break its dealings with the Swedish companies.
Before the protest in Stockholm, dozens of men jumped over the fence of the compound that houses the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Video footage showed men trying to break down a door, setting a fire and standing, some shirtless in the summer heat, inside what appeared to be a room in the embassy, an alarm blaring in the background.
Later, others held pre-dawn prayers outside the embassy.
At dawn, police and other security officials gathered at the embassy as firefighters tried to put out the flames. Some protesters remained at the scene, apparently left alone by the police.
An Associated Press photographer and two Reuters staffers were arrested while covering the protest and released several hours later without charge.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said its staff were safe and that the attacks on embassies and diplomats violated the Vienna Convention. “The Iraqi authorities have a responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and diplomatic personnel,” a statement said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said the ministry would convene Iraq’s chargé d’affaires in Stockholm.
The Finnish Embassy in Baghdad is located next to the Swedish Embassy in an area surrounded by explosive walls. Finland’s ambassador to Iraq, Matti Lassila, told Finnish public broadcaster YLE that staff from both embassies were evacuated on Wednesday.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement condemning the attack and vowing to hold the perpetrators accountable, without explaining how the violation occurred or identifying who carried out the attack.
Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson confirmed that police had given permission for a two-person demonstration outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday. He could not say if the protesters planned to burn the Koran, although Momika had announced it in videos posted on social media.
The right to hold public demonstrations is protected by the Swedish constitution. Profanity laws were dropped in the 1970s. Police generally grant permission based on whether they believe a public assembly can be held without major disruption or security risk.
For Muslims, the burning of the Koran represents a blasphemous desecration of the sacred text of their religion. Burnings of the Koran in the past have sparked protests across the Muslim world, some of which have turned violent. In Afghanistan, the Taliban suspended all activities of Swedish organizations in the country in response to the recent burning of the Koran.
Last month, a man identified by local media and on social media as Momika burned a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque during the main Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, sparking widespread condemnation in the Islamic world.
A similar protest by a far-right activist was held outside the Turkish embassy earlier this year, complicating Sweden’s efforts to convince Turkey to allow it to join NATO.
In June, pro-Sadr protesters stormed the embassy in Baghdad over the burning of the Koran. Another day of protests saw thousands of demonstrators on the streets of the country.
Al-Sadr, the son of a leading Shiite cleric killed in 1999 in an attack believed to have been organized by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, quickly organized dispossessed Shiites under Saddam against US occupation after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Saddam loyalists and Shiite extremists later fought an insurgency against US forces. Al-Sadr’s forces are later believed to have been involved in the sectarian killings between Shiites and Sunnis that ravaged Iraq for several years after the bombing of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites.
Since then, al-Sadr’s followers have participated in Iraqi military offensives against the Islamic State group in Tikrit and other cities and in rallies against government corruption.
Al-Sadr said he would retire from politics last August, after a nearly year-long deadlock on forming a new cabinet. His party won most of the seats in the October 2021 parliamentary election, but not enough to secure a majority government. His resignation sparked violent street protests by his supporters.
In a televised address to his supporters on Thursday night, al-Sadr urged other Arab and Muslim countries to “take action” against the burning of the Koran and mocked the United States, which issued a statement earlier that day condemning the embassy assault.
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Sewell reported from Beirut, while Keyton reported from Stockholm. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Karl Ritter in Stockholm; Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland; Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.
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