A crowd of protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported.
The attack comes ahead of a protest in Stockholm, where authorities approved an assembly outside the Iraqi embassy in the Swedish capital. In the protest to take place later in the day on Thursday organisers are planning to burn an Iraqi flag and another copy of the Muslim holy book Quran.
Sweden has seen several similar incidents this year, with an Iraqi refugee setting fire to a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque in June. Separately, in January, a member of the Swedish far-right had also burned the Muslim book in front of the Turkish embassy in an anti-immigration demonstration.
The January incident triggered Turkey shelving negotiations for Sweden’s NATO bid, while supporters of Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the Swedish embassy after the June protest as well.
Sadr’s followers were also behind Thursday’s attack on the embassy. “We are mobilised today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is all about love and faith,” AFP cited protester Hassan Ahmed as saying.
“We didn’t wait until morning, we broke in at dawn and set fire to the Swedish embassy,” another protester said.
Thursday’s protest in Stockholm was planned by the same Iraqi man, who has been accused by Iran’s Security Ministry of working for Israeli intelligence. Tehran also alleges that the man fought against the Islamic State (ISIS) as part of a Christian militia group.
Embassy staff in the Iraqi capital are safe, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said, adding that attacks on diplomatic missions “constitute a serious violation of the Vienna Convention”.
Fire engines extinguished the flames, while security forces used water cannons to disperse protesters. Officers also used electric batons. Iraqi Foreign Ministry said an investigation had been launched to identify perpetrators.
