Iranian Police Arrest Fifty Iraqi Shi'ites Who Stormed Iraqi Embassy in Tehran

Iranian police arrested about fifty Iraqi Shi'ites who stormed the Iraqi embassy in Tehran on Friday. The protesters, chanting 'No to Saddam' and 'No to American Domination', forcibly broke through the gates of the Iraqi embassy despite police efforts to stop them and entered the embassy grounds. They then proceeded to tear down pictures of Saddam Hussein and destroy furniture and belongings, but did not destroy any documents. Some of the protesters attempted to take some documents from the embassy during their twenty-minute assault, but police prevented this. Iran is home to thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites, most of whom fled their country following the suppression of their uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime after the 1991 Gulf War. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, stated in his Friday prayer sermon in Tehran that Iran is pleased with the collapse of Saddam's power. However, he condemned and denounced U.S. plans to establish a temporary government in Iraq, calling these plans an attack on Islam.