Swedish embassy in Baghdad set on fire during protest

(Baghdad) The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was set on fire before dawn on Thursday during a demonstration organized by supporters of the turbulent religious leader Moqtada Sadr, noted an AFP correspondent, before a new event in Sweden where a copy of the Koran must be burned.

Smoke rose from the Swedish embassy building, the AFP correspondent noted from the roof of a building in the neighborhood, where Iraqi riot forces were deployed in large numbers while dozens of demonstrators were still there.

Embassy staff are “safe”, the Swedish Foreign Ministry in Stockholm told AFP. “We are aware of the situation. Our embassy staff are safe and the ministry is in regular contact with them,” the ministry said in an email.

In Baghdad, several civil defense trucks were on the site to extinguish the fire, noted an AFP photographer. Skirmishes also pitted Iraqi security forces against protesters, who threw stones at police in an attempt to enter the embassy grounds again, he said.

Thursday night some demonstrators near the embassy brandished copies of the Koran, others portraits of Mohamed al-Sadr, influential Shiite religious cleric and father of Moqtada Sadr, noted an AFP correspondent.

The attack on the embassy in Baghdad comes as Swedish police authorized a mini-rally in Stockholm on Thursday: the organizer, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden by the name of Salwan Momika, plans to burn a copy of the Koran and the Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi embassy.

“We are mobilized today to denounce the fact of burning the Koran, which is only love and faith,” protester Hassan Ahmed told AFP. “We demand from the Swedish government and the Iraqi government that this type of initiative cease,” he insisted.

“Urgent investigation” –

“We did not wait for the morning, we entered at dawn, we burned down the Swedish embassy,” said another young protester, before chanting “Moqtada Moqtada Moqtada” from the name of an influential religious leader.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the demonstrator said that “the children of the sadrist current” had acted after the authorization given once again to Salwan Momika “to demonstrate to burn the Koran” in Sweden.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned “in the harshest terms” the fire at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, calling on the security forces to open an “urgent investigation”, according to a press release.

“The Iraqi government has instructed the relevant security services to carry out an urgent investigation and take all necessary measures to bring to light the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators to hold them accountable in accordance with the law,” the statement said.

Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden and organizer of the event scheduled for Thursday according to Swedish media, had already burned a few pages of a copy of the Koran on June 28 in front of the largest mosque in Stockholm during the day of Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.

This first incident prompted supporters of religious leader and politician Moqtada Sadr to storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on 29 June. They went in and stayed there for about a quarter of an hour before coming out.

At the time, Salwan Momika’s gesture in Stockholm provoked a flurry of international condemnation.

This type of act has already taken place in Sweden or in other European countries, sometimes at the initiative of far-right movements. They have led to demonstrations and diplomatic tensions in the past.

Moqtada Sadr, influential religious leader and troublemaker of Iraqi politics, has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to mobilize thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Iraq. In the summer of 2022, his supporters invaded the parliament in Baghdad and installed a sit in of several weeks. Their leader was then in full tussle with the opposing political camp over the appointment of a prime minister.