Baghdad (AFP) - Hundreds of Iraqi protesters stormed and set fires inside Sweden’s embassy compound in Baghdad early Thursday, angered by an expected burning of the Koran later in the day in Stockholm.

Iraqi riot police used electric batons and water cannon to disperse demonstrators who had scaled the walls and were hurling stones at them, as Sweden reported all its embassy staff were safe.

“We didn’t wait until morning, we broke in at dawn and set fire to the Swedish embassy,” one young demonstrator told AFP during the protest as smoke billowed into the sky.

The expected Koran burning in Sweden – in an event approved for Thursday by authorities on free speech grounds – would be the second incident of its kind within weeks in the Nordic country.

On June 28, Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika had also burnt pages of the Islamic holy text outside a Stockholm mosque, sparking a wave of indignation and anger across the Muslim world.

Momika on Facebook confirmed Swedish media reports that he was one of the organisers of the planned event, this time outside Iraq’s embassy, where they were also planning to burn the Iraqi flag.

One of the Iraqi protesters in Baghdad, Hassan Ahmed, told AFP that “we are mobilised today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is all about love and faith”.

“We demand that the Swedish government and the Iraqi government stop this type of action.”

- ‘Serious violation’ -

The protesters, some of whom raised the Koran in the air, were followers of powerful Shiite Muslim cleric and political leader Moqtada Sadr.

Some held up portraits of Sadr and of his late father, Mohamed al-Sadr, a revered cleric in the majority Shiite country.

Several fire trucks soon arrived at the embassy, where skirmishes between Iraqi security forces and demonstrators had broken out in the streets, an AFP photographer said.

Calm has returned by morning, when police blocked the road leading to the embassy, and the full extent of the fire damage was not yet clear.

Sweden’s foreign ministry earlier told AFP by email that all of its employees in Baghdad were “safe” during the unrest and that the ministry had been in “regular contact with them”.

“The Iraqi authorities are responsible for the protection of diplomatic missions and their staff”, the ministry said, labelling such attacks “a serious violation of the Vienna Convention” on diplomatic relations.

- ‘All necessary measures’ -

Iraq’s foreign ministry condemned the embassy torching “in the strongest terms”.

“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.

Sweden and other European countries have previously seen protests where far-right and other activists, citing free speech protections, damage or destroy religious symbols or books, commonly sparking protests and heightening diplomatic tensions.

Momika staged his previous Koran burning in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque during Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.

That incident prompted followers of Sadr to briefly storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad the following day.

The powerful cleric has repeatedly mobilised thousands of demonstrators in the streets.

In the summer of 2022, during a dispute over the appointment of a new prime minister, Sadr supporters invaded Baghdad’s parliament building and staged a sit-in that lasted several weeks.