Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo besieged at residence

Ivory Coast forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara seized the state broadcaster and attacked the residence of incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, a spokesman for Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said.

Radio Television Ivorienne fell into our hands last night, Meite Sindou said in a phone interview today. Television broadcasts were halted at about midnight. He didn’t provide further information on the attack on Gbagbos home in Abidjan, the commercial capital.

Fighting is currently taking place at the presidential palace in the Plateau district and at the Agban military base in the Adjame neighborhood, Sindou said.

A resident of the northern suburb of Cocody, where Gbgbo lives, said, "The shooting doesn't stop. Gbagbo's men are resisting in all their positions.”

"We are hearing deafening artillery shots, RPG7 (rockets) and machine guns," he said.

Intense fighting between soldiers loyal to the outgoing president and the army of internationally recognized president Ouattara, started Thursday night around 10pm within the perimeter of the residence.

French soldiers were deployed to protect foreign residents. A U.N. helicopter gunship flew during the afternoon.

Standoff killed hundreds

In power since 2000, Gbagbo's mandate ran out in 2005 but the presidential election was delayed until 2010 because of instability in the country.

A Sorbonne-educated history professor who prides himself on being in touch with ordinary Ivorians, he rose to prominence as firebrand lecturer who challenged the autocratic rule of Ivory Coast's first post-independence president.

The four month standoff has killed hundreds and rekindled the country's 2002-3 civil war. About 1 million have fled Abidjan alone and some 112,000 other have crossed into Liberia, to the west, according to the United Nations.

Earlier this week, Ouattara's forces advanced from several directions, taking the capital Yamoussoukro and the cocoa port of San Pedro with little resistance.

But Gbagbo's elite forces took positions around the presidential palace in Abidjan on Thursday, in a business district a few km from the residence, and Ouattara's forces could get sucked into bloody urban warfare with his hard-core supporters, some of whom are recently armed civilians.