TENSIONS in Iraq flared again at the weekend over a series of recent protests in Europe involving the desecration of the Koran, which have sparked a debate over the balance between free expression and religious sensitivities.

Early on Saturday, hundreds of protesters tried to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of the Iraqi government, following reports that an ultranationalist group had burnt a copy of the Koran in front of the Iraqi embassy in the Danish capital Copenhagen the previous day.

The protest took place two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the country’s embassy in Baghdad.

Security forces pushed back Saturday’s protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish embassy.

Elsewhere in Iraq, protesters burned three caravans belonging to a demining project run by the the Danish Refugee Council in the southern city of Basra, local police said.

“We deplore this attack. Aid workers should never be a target of violence,” said Lilu Thapa, the Danish Refugee Council’s executive director for the Middle East.

Iraq’s prime minister has cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest at the desecration of the Koran in that country.

An Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Koran during a demonstration in Stockholm last month had threatened to do the same thing again on Thursday but ultimately stopped short of setting fire to the book.

The man, a self-described atheist of Christian origin living in Stockholm, did, however, kick and step on the Koran and did the same with an Iraqi flag and a photo of influential Iraqi Shi’ite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr and of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The right to hold public demonstrations is protected by the constitution in Sweden, where blasphemy laws were abandoned in the 1970s. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or safety risks.

At the incident in Copenhagen, members of the fascist group Danske Patrioter burned a copy of the Koran and an Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi embassy, livestreaming the action on Facebook.

Copenhagen police spokeswoman Trine Fisker told the Associated Press news agency that “a very small demonstration,” with fewer than 10 participants, had taken place on Friday afternoon across the street from the Iraqi embassy and that a book had been burned.

“We do not know what book it was,” she said. “Apparently, they tried to burn the Iraqi flag and after that, somebody stepped on it.”

Ms Fisker added that the “political angle is not for the police to comment” on, but the “event was peaceful … from a police perspective.”

The following day, Danish government condemned the demonstration, with Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen calling it a “stupidity that a small handful of individuals did.”

He told Danish public broadcaster DR: “It is a shameful act to violate the religion of others. This applies both to the burning of Korans and other religious symbols. It has no other purpose than to provoke and create division.”