Iranians protest Saudi execution, torch Tehran embassy

Saudi embassy in Tehran
(Image credit: Mohammadreza Nadimi/AFP/Getty Images)

Iranian demonstrators torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday in protest of the nearby country's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric central to the Arab Spring movement.

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"The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch — by their necks — those cruel individuals who took his life," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on his website Sunday, The Washington Post reports.

Nimr's death came as part of a mass execution in Saudi Arabia. Most of the other 47 people killed had been convicted on terrorism charges.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.