ABIDJAN,
December 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - French soldiers
Saturday, December 21, fired on Ivorian rebels trying to take a
strategic town, as the head of the French military arrived to assess
his country's efforts to enforce a truce in the three-month conflict.
French
army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia claimed that the
rebels had opened fire on French soldiers as they approached Douekoue
from the north-east after bypassing government troops stationed at the
entry to the town, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
French troops initially fired in the air but then responded to the
attack, Leccia said, adding that the rebel advance had been halted.
Three
four-wheel drive vehicles belonging to the rebels were destroyed, he
said, adding that no French soldiers were wounded.
The
French soldiers has a mandate to enforce a truce between the
government troops and the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) rebel
group which has occupied the mainly-Muslim northern half of the
country since September 19.
They
are also mandated to protect foreign nationals. Two new rebel groups
have recently surfaced in western Ivory Coast and overran key towns on
November 28, the same day that the MPCI resumed military action on the
western front.
One
of the new groups retook the key town of Man, near the Liberian
border, on Wednesday and then captured nearby Bangolo two days later.
Douekoue
is a strategic town on the way to Abidjan, and is about 400 kilometers
(250 miles) from the coastal city which serves as Ivory Coast's de
facto capital.
French
Chief of Staff General Henri Bentegeat, meanwhile, arrived Saturday in
Ivory Coast's inland administrative capital of Yamoussoukro to review
the situation on the ground.
He
is due to inspect French troops stationed at Tiebissou, some 50
kilometers (31 miles) north of Yamoussoukro.
Yamoussoukro
airport was taken over by the French military days after the September
19 rebellion as their inland base. The French contingent in Ivory
Coast is expected to swell to about 2,500 before the end of the year.
France
has a permanent military base near Abidjan in line with a bilateral
defense deal agreed shortly after the country gained independence in
1960 but the details of which still remain secret.
UN
Alarmed at Ivory Coast Conflict
The
French move to block the rebels came a day after the UN Security
Council for the first time expressed grave concern over Ivory Coast's
deepening war.
A
resolution late Friday, December 20, said the Security Council was
perturbed over "the situation ... and its serious consequences
for the population of this country and the region."
It
expressed backing for the "democratically elected
government" of President Laurent Gbagbo and condemned the
"use of force" to topple the regime.
The
resolution came after Senegal, the head of a 15-nation West African
bloc trying to mediate in the crisis, led a call for UN intervention.
The
appeal was rapidly echoed by Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler
France, which is getting increasingly embroiled in efforts to contain
the war, and London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International.
The
Ivorian conflict has been complicated by reports of involvement of
foreign powers and mercenaries, the existence of two mass graves
thought to contain up to 200 bodies and sweeping rights abuses
allegedly committed by both government forces and the insurgents.
The
Security Council called "on all states to refrain from any
interference in Cote d'Ivoire" and voiced its "deepest
concerns at reports of mass killings and serious violations of human
rights".
The
appeal came as newly emergent rebels who surfaced in western Ivory at
the end of November advanced deeper into the cocoa-growing belt of the
world's largest cocoa producer, capturing a second town in as many
days.
