![]() He could not say whether the protesters planned to burn the Quran, although Momika had announced that in videos posted on social media. Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson confirmed that police had granted permission for a demonstration involving two people outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm on Thursday. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement condemning the attack and promising to hold the perpetrators accountable, without explaining how the breach happened or identifying who carried out the assault. Finland’s ambassador to Iraq, Matti Lassila, told Finnish public broadcaster YLE that the staffs of both embassies were evacuated Wednesday. The Finnish Embassy in Baghdad is adjacent to the Swedish Embassy in an area enclosed by blast walls. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said the ministry would summon Iraq’s charge d’affaires in Stockholm. “Iraqi authorities have the responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and diplomatic staff,” a statement said. The Swedish Foreign Ministry said its staffers were safe and that attacks on embassies and diplomats violate the Vienna Convention. Some demonstrators remained at the site, apparently left alone by police.Īn Associated Press photographer and two Reuters staff members were arrested while covering the protest and released several hours later without charges. Others later performed pre-dawn prayers outside the embassy.Īs dawn broke, police and other security officials gathered at the embassy as firefighters tried to douse the flames. Video footage showed men trying to break down a door, setting a fire and standing, some shirtless in the summer heat, inside what appeared to be a room at the embassy, with an alarm sounding in the background. The Ministry of Communications said it would sever its dealings with Swedish companies.īefore the protest in Stockholm, dozens of men climbed over the fence at the complex containing the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Momika also stepped on and kicked an Iraqi flag, as well as photographs of al-Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Ībout 50 people, including journalists and a handful of counter-demonstrators chanting religious slogans, watched the demonstration from behind police barricades.Īfter the protest and Sudani’s announcement, the head of Iraq’s Media and Communications Commission said the agency had suspended the license of Swedish communications company Ericsson to operate in Iraq. ![]() He stepped on and kicked the Quran but did not set it aflame. One of them was identified by Swedish media as Salwan Momika, an Iraqi of Christian origin who lives in Sweden as a self-identified atheist. The announcement followed an anti-Islam protest by two men on a lawn about 100 meters (300 feet) from the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. Sudani soon announced the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden.
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