The United States on Thursday strongly condemned the attack on the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad over a planned Koran burning in Stockholm and criticized Iraq's security forces for not preventing protesters from breaching the diplomatic post. "Freedom of peaceful assembly is an essential hallmark of democracy, but what occurred last night was an unlawful act of violence," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. "It is unacceptable that Iraqi Security Forces did not act to prevent protesters from breaching the Swedish Embassy compound for a second time and damaging it."
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The demonstrators were summoned by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to protest against the second planned Koran burning in Sweden in weeks, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked to the influential cleric and other pro-Sadr media.
Sadr, one of Iraq's most powerful figures, commands hundreds of thousands of followers, whom he has at times called to the streets, including last summer when they occupied Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and engaged in deadly clashes.
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Crowd outside Sweden embassy in Iraq, Protester threatening to burn Koran
(Photo: Reuters, Oscar Olsson / TT News Agency , Zulfiqar Al-Olayawi)
Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador earlier in the day. An Iraqi government statement said Baghdad had also recalled its charge d'affaires in Sweden and Iraq's state news agency reported that the government had suspended the working permit of Sweden's Ericsson on Iraqi soil.
Anti-Islam protesters, one of whom is an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden that burned the Koran outside a Stockholm mosque in June, had applied for and received permission from Swedish police to burn the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy, but in the event, protesters kicked and partially destroyed a book they said was the Koran but left the area after one hour without setting it alight
U.S. officials are in contact with their Swedish partners and have offered support, Miller said in a statement. The United States called on the Iraqi government to honor its international obligations to protect all diplomatic missions in Iraq. "Foreign missions should not be targets of violence," Miller said