Deadly Protests Of Cartoons In Libya

(CBS/AP)  Libyans angry over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad rioted at the Italian consulate on Friday, storming the building and setting it on fire. A diplomat said at least 10 people were killed in clashes with police.

It was the deadliest demonstration yet against the cartoons, which have set off violent protests throughout the Muslim world. At least 29 people have been killed altogether.

In Pakistan, a cleric announced a $1 million bounty for killing the cartoonist. Denmark, where a newspaper first published the cartoons, temporarily closed its embassy in Pakistan and advised its citizens to leave the country.

Libyan security officials said 11 people were killed or wounded during the riot in the eastern city of Benghazi when police firing bullets and tear gas tried to contain more than 1,000 demonstrators hurling rocks and bottles. The casualties included police officers, but the officials declined to say how many people had died.

Rioters charged the consular compound and set fire to the first floor of the building, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Domenico Bellantone, an Italian diplomat, said 10 or 11 people — all Libyan — had died.

Antonio Simoes-Concalves, an Italian consular official in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, said Libyan police were not able to control the crowd.

"They are still continually firing," Simoes-Concalves said Friday night, speaking on the telephone from inside the consulate where he was holed up.

About an hour after Simoes-Concalves spoke, Bellantone said the rioters had dispersed.

"The situation is calm now," he said.

The riot appeared to be a reaction to Italian Cabinet Minister Roberto Calderoli, who said this week he would wear a T-shirt printed with the cartoons, which have provoked protests across the Muslim world. His remark was widely published in Libya.

Calderoli wore the T-shirt beneath a suit on Friday. Hours later, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for his resignation, the ANSA news agency reported.

Libyan television showed police officers carrying Kalashnikov rifles in the street outside the consulate, and the newscaster told viewers that "some protesters sneaked into the compound and set part of the consulate on fire."

The Italian consulate is the only Western diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

There was no demonstration outside the Italian Embassy in Tripoli, a possible indication of greater state control in the capital. Politics is tightly controlled in Libya — a former Italian colony — and open dissent is rare.

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