Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy compound in Baghdad and set a small fire inside early on Thursday, angered by reports of a planned Quran burning event in Stockholm later in the day.
Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr climb the fence outside the Swedish embassy in ... [+]
Videos shared on social media show hundreds of protestors climbing the fence around the compound and later setting a fire in front of the embassy building’s main door while waving flags, before dawn on Thursday morning.
According to the Associated Press, the flags and banners waved by the protestors were in support of the powerful Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
The attack was allegedly in response to a public event planned in front of the Iraqi Embassy on Thursday, where a copy of the Islamic holy text, the Quran, will be set on fire.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that all the embassy staff and their family members were safe.
In a statement to the broadcaster, the Swedish Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, calling it a “serious violation of the Vienna Convention,” and said Iraqi authorities must take responsibility for protecting the diplomatic missions and their staffers.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it “condemns the breaching of the embassy compound in the strongest terms” and added that the government has “instructed the competent security authorities to conduct an urgent investigation and take the necessary security measures in order to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators of this act and hold them accountable according to the law.”