Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday that he was expelling the country’s Swedish ambassador over a politically-charged episode in which Stockholm sanctioned protests where copies of the Quran were desecrated.
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday that he was expelling the Swedish ambassador after that country’s government allowed a protest in Stockholm in which a copy of the Quran was desecrated.
On June 29, hundreds of Sadr’s supporters gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in a show of strength that ended hours later when the cleric called on them to return home. Out of government, Sadr has repeatedly directed his followers to start street protests over cultural or religious issues, keeping his working-class and religiously conservative adherents fired up.
“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,” a spokesman said in a statement. The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it had received reports that photographers working to document the attack were obstructed, beaten and detained by Iraqi authorities.
In Baghdad, Sadr’s supporters gathered in the central Tahrir Square awaiting a promised address by their leader as some scrawled graffiti on the outside walls of Swedish-linked businesses. “Closed by the order of Mohammed al-Sadr’s sons,” read one.
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