News that Swedish authorities would permit the protest to go ahead on free speech grounds had led hundreds of Iraqi protesters to storm and torch the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in a chaotic pre-dawn attack.

Iraq's government condemned that attack, but retaliated against the protest in Sweden's capital by expelling its ambassador, vowing to sever ties and suspending the operating licence of Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson.

Around the time of the protest outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani "instructed the Swedish ambassador in Baghdad to leave Iraqi territory".

The decision was "prompted by the Swedish government's repeated permission for the burning of the Holy Koran, insulting Islamic sanctities and the burning of the Iraqi flag", his office said.

In the end, the Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 37, stepped on the Koran but did not burn its pages, as he had done last month outside Stockholm's main mosque.

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.

- Night of chaos -

Advance news of the planned Stockholm protest had prompted hundreds to mass at the Baghdad embassy overnight -- as they had done in response to the Koran burning in June -- scaling the walls and torching buildings.

The protesters -- followers of powerful Shiite Muslim cleric and political leader Moqtada Sadr -- clashed with Iraqi riot police who used electric batons and water cannon to disperse them.

One protester, Hassan Ahmed, told AFP that "we mobilised today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is all about love and faith".

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

Calm had returned by morning, when police blocked the road leading to the embassy, as the full extent of the fire damage remained unclear.

Sweden's foreign ministry told AFP all of its employees in Baghdad were "safe" during the unrest.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom later said Iraq's charge d'affaires would be summoned.

"What has happened is completely unacceptable and the government condemns these attacks in the strongest terms," he said in a statement.

The United States also condemned the attack on the embassy.

"It is unacceptable that Iraqi Security Forces did not act to prevent protestors from breaching the Swedish Embassy compound for a second time and damaging it," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

- 'Severing relations' -

Iraq's prime minister called an emergency meeting in the morning and strongly condemned the embassy attack, as an Iraqi security source told AFP about 20 protesters had been taken into custody.

But Sudani's government also issued a stern warning to Sweden if it allowed the second Koran protest to go forward, with only hours to go.

Baghdad said it had informed Stockholm "that any recurrence of the incident involving the burning of the Holy Koran on Swedish soil would necessitate severing diplomatic relations".

Swedish police had granted a permit for the protest in line with legislation on the rights to freedom of assembly and speech.

"The constitution states that a lot is needed to deny a person a permit for a public gathering so the day before yesterday we granted a permit for a private individual to protest," Ola Osterling of the Stockholm police told AFP.

Momika previously burnt pages of the Koran on June 28, outside Stockholm's largest mosque during Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.

That incident had sparked indignation and diplomatic protests from across the Muslim world, and 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 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.

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