Protesters storm Swedish Embassy in Baghdad over Quran burning | Islamophobia News
BREAKINGBREAKING,
Protesters angered by burning of copies of the Quran in Sweden set fire to Swedish embassy in Iraqi capital: Reports.
Protesters angered by the burning of copies of the Quran in Sweden have stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, breaking into the compound and lighting a fire.
Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post early on Thursday morning waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shia cleric and political leader Muqtada Sadr.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the burning of the embassy, the Reuters news agency reported.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A source told the Reuters news agency that no embassy staff had been harmed and declined to elaborate further. Swedish embassy officials in Baghdad did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Thursday’s demonstration at the embassy was called by supporters of Sadr to protest the second planned burning of a Quran in Sweden, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked the influential cleric and other pro-Sadr media.
Swedish news agency TT reported on Wednesday that Swedish police granted an application for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.
The application said the applicant was seeking to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag, TT reported.
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