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11 dead in Libya cartoon violence

Rome (dpa) - Police in Libya opened fire Friday on demonstrators who attacked an Italian consulate, killing at least 11 during a protest against caricatures of Islam's holy prophet Mohammed, Italian media reported. The embassy was set ablaze.

Dozens of others were injured in the protest outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi, the ANSA news agency said. All of the victims reportedly were Libyans.

Italian media said the violence could be linked to reform minister Roberto Calderoli, who recently has sported T-shirts with the caricatures. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi urged him Friday night to resign, news reports said.

Libyan police began firing at the angry crowd when protesters broke through barricades protecting the consulate, smashed windows and threw Molotov cocktails into the building, reports said.

Television images from Benghazi showed the building's main door blackened by fire, burning cars and police in riot gear.

"We were afraid for our lives - those gunshots and then the people who tried to break into the building," said consul Giovanni Pirrello's wife.

The caricatures were first published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September, notably one showing the prophet with a turban resembling a bomb. Newspapers in several countries reprinted the cartoons this year, sparking outrage and protests by Muslims across much of the world.

Calderoli has said it is "time to stop telling ourselves the fairy tale that we have to seek a dialogue with Muslims." A member of the right-wing populist Lega Nord party, Calderoli offered a caricature T-shirt to anyone who asked for it.

After the consulate attack in Libya, Italy's centre-left opposition accused Calderoli of irresponsibly putting the country's security at risk.