Sweden temporarily moves embassy staff in Iraq to Stockholm

Stockholm, July 22

The Swedish embassy staff in Iraq has been temporarily relocated from Baghdad to Stockholm, Swedish authorities said.

"Seconded personnel have arrived in Sweden by regular flight," the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs told TT news agency in a written statement on Friday.

Hundreds of Iraqis stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set fire to the building in the early hours of Thursday, in protest against burning of the Quran and the Iraqi flag in Sweden, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Iraqi government on Thursday decided to ask the Swedish ambassador to leave Iraq and recall its charge d'affaires from Sweden.

A statement by the government said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani issued the directives "in response to the repeated permission of the Swedish government to burn the Quran, insult Islamic sanctities, and burn the Iraqi flag".

The person who had burned the Quran in Stockholm late last month had sought and gotten permission from the Swedish Police for a demonstration again, at which another burning had been planned.

On June 30, protesters stormed the Swedish embassy just outside the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, after a copy of the Quran was torn up and burned in front of a mosque in Stockholm on June 28 during a demonstration authorised by the Swedish authorities.