SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran condemns Iraqi protesters’ raid on Tehran consulate in Karbala over the killing of a prominent activist, Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday.
Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters that Iran had handed over a “letter of protest” to the Iraqi embassy in Tehran late on Sunday.
“Iran strongly condemns attacks on its diplomatic sites in Iraq,” Khatibzadeh said in a weekly briefing in Tehran, according to the Associated press.
On Sunday, Iraqi protesters set fire to trailers belonging to Iran’s consulate in Karbala amid widespread anger over the killing of Ihab al-Wazni, a leading Iraqi anti-government activist.
He was shot overnight Saturday outside his home by unknown assailants.
Wazni was a vocal opponent of corruption, the stranglehold of Iran-linked armed groups and Iran’s influence in Iraq.
Protests broke out in Karbala, Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah in southern Iraq in reaction to his killing, as people called for an end to the bloodshed and to rampant corruption, according to AFP.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the ministry of interior agencies to quickly find the perpetrators during a Council of Ministers’ meeting on Sunday.
Around 30 activists have died in targeted killings and dozens of others abducted, some detained briefly, since October 2019, AFP reported.
