Ivory Coast's government and rebel forces started to pull back heavy guns on Saturday from a front-line zone policed by international troops, a French peace force said.
The start of the agreed operation was rare good news for a peace process bogged down in political disputes, just two days after the bloodiest episode in the main city Abidjan since a failed coup ignited a civil war 15 months ago.
The government said 18 attackers and one security force member died in three shootouts on Thursday night including a group of men it said had tried to attack the state television headquarters.
Rebel commanders denied involvement.
"We have started. It's not a disarmament operation, but an operation to calm the situation on the ground, to lower the tension," rebel chief of staff Soumaila Bakayoko said.
"I hope our friends in the FANCI (National Armed Forces of Ivory Coast) are doing the same on their side," he said.
Army officers were unavailable for comment.
Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Peillon, spokesman for France's Operation Unicorn, that is intervening in the cocoa-rich former colony, said both sides had begun to withdraw heavy weapons from either side of a demilitarised confidence zone.
"They have started," Peillon said. "There is not much left in the confidence zone, all that was [cleared] last week, the checkpoints and such."
Under plans agreed to reduce tension at the front, both sides have until Dec. 25 to pull back heavy weapons.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, has been cut in two by the front line since civil war broke out in September last year, when the rebels captured the northern half of the country.
Fighters from neighboring Liberia became involved, prompting fears Ivory Coast could be dragged into a cycle of anarchic civil war that engulfed Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The warring factions agreed a peace deal early this year and officially declared the war over in July, but progress towards disarming fighters and reuniting the country has been slow.
The two sides agreed to pull back their heavy arms to lower the risk of new fighting despite failing to reach agreement on disarming fighters.
Talks have stumbled on differences over the rebels' political influence and President Laurent Gbagbo's demands they lay down their guns.
After meeting rebel officials in early December, Gbagbo announced disarmament would start today -- but rebel commanders said they had not agreed any date.
After a meeting with army officials in government-held Abidjan on Friday, senior rebel commander Colonel Bamba Siniema said they would not hand in weapons until they rejoined a unity government they quit in September in a row with Gbagbo.
Thursday's bloodshed fuelled fears of violence around today's disarmament deadline, although the exact circumstances remain unclear with a number of conflicting reports.
Pro-Gbagbo loyalists have pledged to attack rebel positions if they don't disarm next week although it is hard to see how they would cross a ceasefire line policed by some 4,000 French and 1,300 West African troops.
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