Nine dead in riot in Libya over prophet cartoons

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyans protesting the Prophet Muhammad cartoons set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi today and clashed with police in turmoil that left at least nine people dead, an Italian diplomat said.

Libyan state television showed a part of the consulate building on fire, and firefighters trying to extinguish it and showed ambulances taking casualties away,

Italian consular official Antonio Simoes-Concalves said nine protesters had been killed and several more wounded as armed police clashed with a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators.

Libyan officials said there were 11 dead or wounded.

Security officials said the demonstrators hurled stones and bottles at the consulate, entered the grounds and set fire to the building and a consular car.

Simoes-Goncalves told The Associated Press in Rome that the Libyan police were not able to control the crowd, even though they were firing bullets and tear gas.

No Italians inside the compound were injured, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Italy's ambassador to Libya in Tripoli met late today with the Libyan interior minister "who expressed the condemnation of his government for the acts of violence occurring in Benghazi," the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.

At least 19 people have been killed in protests over the drawings in the past several weeks, most of them in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Beirut, angry demonstrators torched the building housing the Danish mission on Feb. 6.