French troops killed more than 30 Ivory Coast nationals and wounded at least 100 others in the ongoing crisis in the west African country, Ivorian parliament speaker Mamadou Coulibaly said on French public radio France Inter Sunday.
"In [the main cities of] Abidjan and Yamassoukro the French army killed more than 30 people and wounded more than 100, people who were unarmed, to avenge the blood of nine dead French soldiers," Coulibaly said.
Nine French troops died in an air raid by Ivory Coast warplanes and 30 were wounded Saturday in the central Ivorian city of Bouake.
French reinforcements were expected in Ivory Coast after continuing unrest overnight.
Meanwhile, angry mobs of thousands laid siege to a French military base in Ivory Coast's largest city yesterday and went house-to-house in search of French families, answering hard-liners' call to take to the streets after deadly violence erupted between France's forces and those of its former colony.
French military helicopters dropped percussion grenades throughout the night on mobs massing at bridges, the international airport and the military base in the commercial capital, Abidjan, French military spokesman Henry Aussavy said.
France remained newly in control of the international airport after destroying what it said was the entire Ivorian Air Force -- two Sukhoi warplanes and five helicopter gunships -- Saturday.
Destruction came in retaliation for the Ivorian Air Force's surprise bombing of a French peacekeeping position in the north, held by Ivorian rebels since civil war broke out in the world's top cocoa producer in September 2002.
Saturday's airstrike killed nine French troops and one American civilian, believed by American diplomats to be a missionary.
France and the UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session, demanded President Laurent Gbagbo restore order.
Ivorian leaders sounded defiance yesterday.
National Assembly President Mamadou Coulibaly, No. 2 under Gbagbo, accused French President Jacques Chirac of arming Ivory Coast's rebels, telling France's Inter radio "we have the feeling and we have the proof" of it.
Accusing France of "connivance with the rebels," Coulibaly demanded French troops "liberate the territory and then go."
Hardliners urged loyalists on to more uprisings.
"We ask you all to take to the streets," Ble Goude, a so-called youth leader in control of thousands of loyalist militia members, declared on state TV.
"Show France we are a sovereign state," another loyalist hard-liner, Genevieve Bro Grebe, head of a women's militia, declared. Fearful of attempts to overthrow Gbagbo, Grebe on state TV urged crowds to form a ``human shield'' around his presidential palace.
Militia leaders also called on loyalists to march on the airport and the French military base.
Thousands of loyalists were demonstrating in front of the military base at daybreak yesterday, Aussavy said.
Enraged at the French retaliation for the airstrike, mobs went door-to-door looking for foreign families, and looted and burned French businesses and at least two French schools.
"We are all terrified, and try to reassure each other," one French resident said by telephone from his home, speaking on condition he not be identified.
"We have been told by the embassy to stay at home ... It is a difficult situation to live through," the Frenchman said.
Numerous French families called French authorities in Ivory Coast overnight, saying their homes were being attacked and looted, Aussavy said.
There was no word of casualties among French civilians, he said.
Ivory Coast television overnight showed the bodies of five loyalists they said had been killed in Abidjan's violence, journalists said.
A loyalist leader, Eugene Djue, claimed in a telephone interview at least six dead among loyalist demonstrators, allegedly killed by the French. He claimed two girls had disappeared after jumping off a bridge to escape the French helicopters.
France took control of Abidjan's airport by late Saturday, saying it was securing it for any evacuations, after French and Ivory Coast troops traded gunfire on the tarmac.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS