The Ivorian crisis has taken a more violent turn Wednesday, with clashes involving heavy weaponry between forces loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and unidentified fighters in a district of Abidjan supports Alassane Ouattara.
Defence Forces and Security (FDS), loyal to Mr.Gbagbo, lead a "major operation" to "secure" the neighborhood of Abobo (north), told AFP a senior military official on condition of anonymity.
"Exchanges of heavy weapons" are held in the neighborhood where fighting, sporadic since January between the FDS and the gunmen have stepped up in recent days, he confirmed in the afternoon.
According to several residents contacted by AFP, fighting in the northern Abobo started around 16:00 (GMT) and ended around 20:30.
"It takes all the time", said one resident, adding that "everyone is locked up at home."A taxi driver said that the SDS had made earlier fired warning shots to residents returning home.
Ten elements of the Centre for Security Operations Command (Cecos), an elite unit of the SDS, were killed Tuesday night in Abobo in fighting after an ambush by "attackers," said a security source.
Witnesses reported a death toll will FDS side, and several civilian casualties.The body of a civilian shot dead lay in pools of blood in the morning near a service station.
A senior Cecos but assured on Wednesday that the unit had lost only three men, lamented "seven bullet wounds" in her womb and killed "seven attackers.
In the morning, the SDS were deployed in Abobo, blocking access to certain areas, while many streets were deserted and shops closed, noted AFP.
Dozens of people, especially women and children, then fled the area."I leave the area," a woman let go, sack on his head.
The government accuses Gbagbo of "rebels" to operate in this neighborhood before Tuesday's fighting, at least a dozen of SDS had been killed since January.
The camp Ouattara, combined with the former rebel New Forces (FN) controlling the northern Ivory Coast since 2002, denies any involvement in these actions.
Inspired by the examples of Egypt and Tunisia, supporters of Mr.Ouattara has turned up the heat last week calling for a "revolution" to hunt out.
More than 300 people have been killed since mid-December according to the UN in the violence that marked the crisis resulting from the November 28 presidential, between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, President recognized by the international community.
Since Saturday, at least a dozen pro-Ouattara demonstrators were killed by the SDS, which dispersed the crowd with live ammunition, according to several sources, but also in Abobo areas in Kumasi and Treichville (south).
This renewed tension comes as African Union deploys fresh efforts for a solution to the crisis, so far found.
Monday and Tuesday, four African presidents to a panel appointed by the AU met Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara. Objective: To arrive by 28 February solutions "binding".
Group members, chaired by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (Mauritania), left the country since Tuesday evening and will meet in Nouakchott "in the coming days."
AU favors a peaceful settlement, but the former mediator Raila Odinga, Kenyan Prime Minister, has found that if economic sanctions fail to achieve "regime change, then of course the force will be used" as "West Africa has brandished the threat against Mr. Gbagbo.
