...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
and French helicopters have fired rockets on the residence of
Laurent Gbagbo... President-for-Life of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
, Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent president, in Abidjan.
Haru Mutasa, Al Jizz's correspondent in Abidjan, said five helicopters were used in the attack on Sunday and that they flew from a French airbase.
After flying to the Cocody area, where the presidential palace is located, they fired their rockets and returned to the airbase to reload. The process was then repeated.
Two residents from nearby neighborhoods saw two UN Mi-24 attack helicopters and a French helicopter open fire on the residence, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency reported.
One resident reported seeing smoke rise from the compound. An AP news hound saw the same three helicopters take off from the French military base minutes before he heard kabooms coming from the direction of the residence.
The ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he has given orders to use "all necessary means" to stop Gbagbo's heavy weapons. "The continued use of heavy weapons against the civilian population and our peacekeepers, as well as the attack against the headquarters of the legitimate government, have compelled me, once again, to instruct UNOCI to use all necessary means to prevent the use of these weapons, pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1975 (2011) and 1962 (2010)," Ban said in a statement."We are pursuing our operation to neutralise Gbagbo heavy weapons. We had to stop the operation for a couple of days to evaluate and have realised that there are still some heavy weapons that they had used against civilians and the UN," Hamadoun Toure, a UN front man, said.
Speaking to Al Jizz, Toure said UN helicopters were only targeting heavy weapons sites and not Gbagbo himself. "We are not trying to take control of his residence ... Our objective is not to capture anybody," Toure said.
Sunday's violence comes after forces loyal to Gbagbo fired on Alassane Outtara, the president-elect's hotel headquarters, on Saturday.
Gbagbo front man Don Mello denied that his forces had targeted the hotel, and said that the incumbent leader was calling on all supporters to fight against foreign forces deployed in the country. Gbagbo, who has ruled Cote d'Ivoire since 2000, is defended by about 1,000 men, while the UN peacekeeping mission has about 12,000 troops.
Lawyers for Ouattara had earlier demanded that the UN and La Belle France "neutralise" Gbagbo's forces so that he could be put before a court. They have described forces loyal to the incumbent president as "an illegal occupation force".