Swedish authorities approved an assembly to be held later Thursday outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, where organisers plan to burn a copy of the Koran as well as an Iraqi flag.
Iraqis have been angered by events in Sweden, and Thursday's protest in Baghdad was organised by supporters of the turbulent religious leader Moqtada Sadr.
Iraqi riot police fired water cannon to disperse demonstrators away from the embassy while security forces armed with electric batons chased protesters, an AFP photographer on the scene said.
"We are mobilised today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is all about love and faith," protester Hassan Ahmed told AFP. "We demand that the Swedish government and the Iraqi government stop this type of initiative."
Some protesters had raised copies of the Koran into the air, while others held portraits of Mohamed al-Sadr, an important religious cleric and the father of Moqtada Sadr.
"We didn't wait until morning, we broke in at dawn and set fire to the Swedish embassy," a young demonstrator in Baghdad told AFP on Thursday, before chanting Moqtada's name.
Sweden's foreign ministry told AFP its embassy staff in Baghdad were "safe" following the incident.
"The Iraqi authorities are responsible for the protection of diplomatic missions and their staff", the ministry said, adding that attacks on embassies and diplomats "constitute a serious violation of the Vienna Convention".
Several trucks to extinguish the fire had arrived at the embassy, where skirmishes between Iraqi security forces and demonstrators had broken out, an AFP photographer said.
It was not immediately clear whether the embassy was empty at the time of the attack or if staff had been evacuated.
- 'Urgent investigation' -
Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the embassy torching and called on security forces to identify those responsible.
"The Iraqi government has instructed the relevant security services to conduct an urgent investigation and take all necessary measures to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators," the ministry said in a statement.
Swedish media reported that Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, had organised the event in Stockholm on Thursday.
Salwan burned a few pages of a copy of the Koran in front of Stockholm's largest mosque on June 28 during Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.
That incident prompted supporters of Moqtada, an influential religious leader and political dissident in Iraq, to storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad the following day.
Moqtada has repeatedly mobilised thousands of demonstrators in the streets.
In the summer of 2022, his supporters invaded Baghdad's parliament building and staged a sit-in that lasted several weeks.
At the time, Moqtada was involved in a political spat over the appointment of a prime minister.
Iraq slams US for Christian leader 'harassment' remark
Baghdad (AFP) July 19, 2023 -
Baghdad on Wednesday criticised Washington after the US State Department expressed concern about "harassment" of the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic church in Iraq.
In a statement, the office of President Abdul Latif Rashid said it would "summon the US embassy in Baghdad over this matter".
On Tuesday, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller expressed concern about political attacks in Iraq against Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako.
"We are disturbed by the harassment of Cardinal Sako, the patriarch of the Chaldean church, and troubled by the news that he has left Baghdad," Miller said.
"We are concerned that the Cardinal's position as a respected leader of the church is under attack from a number of quarters."
For several months, Sako has been embroiled in a war of words with a Christian lawmaker, Rayan al-Kildani.
Kildani heads the Babylon Movement, whose armed wing is part of Hashed al-Shaabi -- a network of largely pro-Iran paramilitaries that were integrated into Iraqi security forces.
In early July, Rashid cancelled a 2013 decree officially recognising Sako as head of the Chaldean Church, and which was essential for administering the community's endowment, according to the patriarch.
In response, Sako said he has "decided to withdraw from the seat of the patriarchate in Baghdad", and would instead settle at one of the monasteries in the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Miller called the treatment of Sako a "blow against religious freedom", and said Washington had made its views on the issue "quite clear" to the authorities in Baghdad.
The Iraqi presidency's statement on Wednesday said it was "disappointed by the accusations aimed at the Iraqi Government and the Presidency regarding the decision taken to reverse a decree that was not in line with the country's constitution".
It said that to reverse the 2013 decree "would be futile and a flagrant violation of the Constitution for which Iraqis and Americans themselves have fought and sacrificed".
The statement added that the president "has always respected Iraq's Christians and has advocated for their rights throughout his career".
In a country ravaged by repeated conflicts and plagued by endemic corruption, Sako and Kildani have both accused each other of illegally seizing Christian-owned properties.
Kildani, who has been under US sanctions since 2019, accuses the cardinal of assuming a political role beyond his religious mandate.
Sako, in turn, says the parliamentarian aims to gain legitimacy as the sole representative of the Christian community.
Iraq's Christian population has drastically declined since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled strongman Saddam Hussein, dropping from more than 1.5 million people to around 400,000 today.
Many have fled the violence that has plagued the country over the past 20 years.
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