Two security sources said that early on Saturday, supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq ransacked offices associated with a Saudi TV channel in Baghdad after the channel aired a report referring to commanders of Tehran-backed groups as “terrorists.”
Between 400 and 500 people attacked the studios of a Baghdad production company that works for the Saudi broadcaster MBC after midnight.
An anonymous interior ministry source told AFP, “They wrecked the electronic equipment, the computers, and set fire to a part of the building.” He said the fire had been stifled and the group scattered by police.
He added, “Security forces are still deployed near the building.” There were no arrests immediately reported.
According to an AFP photographer, a large police presence remained in the area on Saturday morning, preventing access to the site.
A police source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that “the demonstrators arrived at the offices before reinforcements of riot police were sent in.”
The second source said that the offices had been “badly ransacked” and “set on fire.”
Excerpts from an MBC program titled “Insulting Resistance Leaders” circulated on Iraqi social media, eliciting outrage from supporters of Iran-backed factions.
The report mentioned a number of organizations and individuals, including Osama bin Laden, as well as the topic of “terrorism” in the region. It included groups from the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which is supported by Iran and includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and armed Iraqi factions.
The report mentions Hassan Nasrallah, a former leader of Hezbollah who was killed by Israel in Beirut last month, and Ismail Haniyeh, a former political leader of Hamas, who was killed in July in Tehran.
It also called Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh’s successor who planned the attack on Israel on October 7 and died on Thursday in Gaza, the “new face of terrorism.”
The report came at a time when these groups have been fighting Israel for more than a year, most notably Hamas and Hezbollah, but also their allies in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
Videos of Baghdad protesters waving the flags of various armed groups were distributed on Telegram by the Sabreen News channel, which is associated with pro-Iran factions in Iraq.
The majority of the Iraqi government is pro-Iran and has attempted diplomatically to stay out of the regional conflict.
