Fierce fighting spreads in Ivory Coast showdown

Fierce fighting spread across Abidjan on Friday as troops loyal to Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo fended off attacks by forces supporting Alassane Ouattara's rival claim to the presidency. The heaviest clashes centred around the state television station, which went off the air after it was attacked by pro-Ouattara forces overnight.
The boom of heavy weapons fire rang out constantly from near Gbagbo's residence and presidential palace, both of which have come under attack, as well as two major military bases - turning Ivory Coast's main city into a war zone. "We can hear shooting and see soldiers moving but there are also armed civilians running in the streets," said Camara Arnold, a resident of Cocody, the neighbourhood that is home to the state television building and Gbagbo's residence.
Two white MI-24 attack helicopters belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission circled above central Abidjan's palm-fringed lagoon, but did not intervene. Gbagbo, who has refused to quit after a November 28 election that UN-certified results showed he lost, has been hit by a number of high-level defections in the military. The African Union, former colonial ruler France, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on him to step down immediately.
But in the commercial capital loyalists have dug in, and a Paris-based Gbagbo adviser said the incumbent's surrender was "out of the question". Forces supporting Ouattara, who has been recognised as winner of the November election by African nations and Western powers, marched into Abidjan on Thursday after a swift push south that initially met with little resistance.
But they now face Gbagbo's most reliable fighters, the roughly 2,500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops. The UN peacekeeping mission said its headquarters were fired on by Gbabgo's special forces on Thursday, and returned fire in an exchange lasting about three hours.
UN convoys have also come under attack by Gbagbo loyaists four times since Thursday, with three peacekeepers injured in one of the attacks, the mission said in a statement. The United Nations also called on Ouattara to rein in his forces, citing what it said were unconfirmed reports they had abducted and mistreated civilians.
While figures for dead and wounded were unavailable, Doctors Without Borders said it had treated at least 80 people over the past two days, most of them suffering from gunshot wounds. The power struggle in the world's top cocoa grower pushed cocoa prices higher in recent weeks, but they have tumbled since on expectations exports will soon be freed up.
Ivory Coast's $2.3 billion 2032 bond, on which it defaulted in January, extended gains on Friday, rising more than 3 points to a 3-1/2-month high. A Paris-based adviser of Gbagbo's, Toussaint Alain, said Gbagbo remained in Ivory Coast and would not give up. He declined to say if Gbagbo was in Abidjan. "We would urge Mr Gbabgo to read the writing on the wall and to step down now," a US State Department spokesman said. Hundreds of foreigners have been taken to a French military camp after they were threatened by looters taking advantage of the chaos. Gbagbo has been in power since 2000. His mandate ran out in 2005 but the presidential election was delayed until 2010, ostensibly because of instability in the country.