Only hours after protesters, incensed by the burning of Quran copies in Sweden, stormed and set ablaze the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, Iraq expels Sweden’s ambassador in a sudden twist of events.
The Fallout from the Swedish Embassy Incident
In the fallout of the violent protest, the Iraqi prime minister has recalled the nation’s charge d’affaires from Sweden, the government announced on Thursday. Additionally, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson’s working permit on Iraqi soil has been suspended, state media reports. Eyewitness accounts from Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed depict the scene as the protesters waving flags and placards bearing the image of influential Iraqi Shia religious and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
Iraq Expels Sweden’s Ambassador Amid Unrest
The embassy burning served as a form of protest against the second planned desecration of a Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. Although the Sweden protesters inflicted partial damage on a book they claimed to be the Quran, they refrained from burning it as previously threatened.
