Swedish embassy in Baghdad stormed, set alight over Quran burning

Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Quran in Sweden.

The source said no embassy staff had been harmed and declined to elaborate further. Swedish embassy officials in Baghdad did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The burning of a Quran copy took place during a police-authorized demonstration in downtown Stockholm on June 28. Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi immigrant, tore pages from the Quran and set it on fire. On that day, Muslims around the world were celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s major religious holidays. The Swedish Foreign Ministry said later that the country’s government condemned the "Islamophobic acts" committed by individuals, which in no way reflected the views of the Swedish authorities.

On July 19, the Stockholm policy authorized another such action in front of Iraq’s embassy.