2023-07-20 04:14:15
The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was set on fire before dawn on Thursday July 20 during a demonstration organized by supporters of the turbulent religious leader Moqtada Sadr, before a new event in Sweden where a copy of the Koran is to be burned.
Smoke billowed from the building of the Swedish Embassy from the roof of a building in the neighborhood, where Iraqi riot forces deployed in large numbers then chased down dozens of protesters who remained behind.
Embassy staff are ” safe “ for its part indicated the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. “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.
Burn a copy of the Quran
In Baghdad, several civil defense trucks were on site to put out the fire. Using water cannons, security forces chased protesters with electric batons to drive them away from the Swedish Embassy and force them to disperse. Protesters responded with stone throwing.
During the night, some demonstrators near the Swedish embassy brandished copies of the Koran, others portraits of Mohamed al-Sadr, an influential Shiite religious cleric and father of Moqtada Sadr.
The attack on the embassy in Baghdad comes as Swedish police authorized a mini-rally on Thursday in Stockholm: the organizer, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, 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”said protester Hassan Ahmed in Baghdad. “We demand that the Swedish government and the Iraqi government stop this type of initiative”he hammered.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the fire
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned “in the harshest terms” the burning of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, calling on the security forces to open a “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 bring them to account in accordance with the law”he continues.
Salwan Momika, organizer of the event scheduled for Thursday, 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.
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