Opponents of Saddam Hussein broke into Iraq's empty diplomatic mission in west London today to celebrate the fall of Baghdad, only to be arrested at the scene.
Police sealed off the white Victorian mansion at Queen's Gate after two dozen men broke into the building, which was Baghdad's embassy in London before diplomatic ties were broken off in February 1991.
One could be seen tearing up a portrait of the Iraqi president at one of the building's windows.
Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Andy Trotter said all 24 were arrested and taken to a central London police station, in a move that upset other exiles present.
"I don't understand why they were arrested," said Mr Ali Baraka, from Najaf in the south of Iraq. "They just went inside the building to express their happiness. They just tore up pictures of Saddam Hussein."
The building was being used as the Iraqi interests section of the Jordanian embassy, before the two Iraqi diplomats who staffed it were told by London to leave after the war to oust Saddam began on March 20th.
Later in the day, some 20 Iraqis gathered across the street from the building, chanting slogans in Arabic and waving placards which read: "No to occupation, Yes to liberation."
AFP