(Bloomberg) -- Dozens of Iraqi protesters in the holy city of Najaf besieged and burned the Iranian consulate there, al-Arabiya television reported.
Police in charge of protecting the consulate opened fire on demonstrators and then left the building along with the Iranian diplomatic staff, al-Arabiya said. Later, police imposed a curfew in the city as firefighters took hours to put out the blaze.
Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the attack on the consulate, saying the purpose of the attack was to “hurt the Iraqi-Iranian relations”, al-Arabiya reported. Najaf is the home of Shiite Islam's top cleric Ali al-Sistani and is 200 kilometers south of Baghdad.
The attack comes as Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against government corruption, poor services and Iranian influence, calling for an overhaul of the ruling political class.
Iraqi security forces and militias backed by Iran have killed at least 350 civilians since protests erupted last month in Iraq, OPEC's number-two oil producer, according to figures provided by the country's Human Rights Commission.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Nov. 18 that the U.S. is preparing to impose sanctions on any Iraqi official found to be corrupt and on those responsible for the deaths of peaceful protesters.
To contact the reporter on this story: Zaid Sabah in Washington at zalhamid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sebastian Tong at stong41@bloomberg.net, ;Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Jim Silver
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