Indonesian militants target Danes

JAKARTA - Up to 300 militant Muslims went on a rampage yesterday inside the lobby of a Jakarta building housing the Danish Embassy in protest over cartoons that Muslims say insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great), the white-clad protesters from the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) smashed lamps with bamboo sticks and threw chairs around in anger at cartoons originally published by a Danish daily newspaper.

Outrage has erupted in the Middle East after more European newspapers ran the cartoons, originally published by Jyllands-Posten last September.

Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

About 100 Indonesian policemen tried to restrain the protesters as they made fiery speeches calling on their Government to sever diplomatic ties with Denmark and evict its ambassador.

- REUTERS