Posted on 04/11/2011 6:21:15 AM PDT by Cardhu
French ground troops have entered the centre of the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan for the fist time as incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo refuses to quit.
Helicopter gunships are firing in the area around Mr Gbagbo's residence.
On Sunday, UN and French helicopter gunships began a new operation they said was aimed at destroying heavy weapons near Mr Gbagbo's residence.
Mr Gbagbo has been refusing to cede power to internationally-recognised President Alassane Ouattara.
Loud explosions can be heard echoing around the lagoons which surround the centre of the city, says the BBC's Mark Doyle in Abidjan.
On Monday morning, a large column of French armoured vehicles left the French military base in Abidjan.
A spokesman for Mr Ouattara has said his troops were involved as well, and that this was the largest joint attack since the conflict began.
The action will not stop until Mr Gbagbo steps down, the spokesman added.
French helicopter strikes have partially destroyed Mr Gbagbo's residence, one of his ministers said.
But the Ivorian leader was still alive, according to one of his spokesmen in Paris, quoted by Reuters news agency.
An aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the French strikes are to avoid a "bloodbath" rather than to depose Mr Gbagbo.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Only Obama could make the French look like war mongers !
Pure imperialism, except in this iteration the parent country can only act imperialistically when it’s against its own interests.
Well they stopped a 93 year losing streak.
This was a Dem-style “ election victory.” Gbagbo’s Muslim opponent was actually ineligible to run because he was not a native Ivoirean (he’s from the neighboring Muslim state of Burkina Faso), but he ran anyway with the support, of course, of the Muslims in the north, many of them from Burkina Faso themselves. However, for two years in a row before that, elections had been cancelled - with the SUPPORT of the UN and various African organizations - because they felt that the country was too unstable to guarantee the process, since the Muslims from the north were busy attacking Christian villages in the north and were working their way south.
When they held the election, Gbagbo actually won, and the Muslims immediately claimed fraud, even though it was the Muslims who had been trying to intimidate Christians to keep them away from the polls in the north and anywhere they were dominant, and there had been major Muslim attacks on Christian villages where Gbagbo was expected to win, with mass rape being a favorite feature of the Muslim “warriors.” This time, with the support of the UN and the French, the Muslims were awarded the election after a supposed recount.
So it is dubious that “the people” elected Ouattara, unless you mean a Dem style election, which is where they keep adjusting the totals until their candidate wins. But even the Dems don’t usually go in for mass rape and slaughter, yet, at any rate.
This sounds a little rough for the US (so far), but I wonder how much union and Obamacorps thuggery we are going to see in the 2012 campaign and election?
Maybe a B.F. Goodrich or Uniroyal? I wonder what size he takes.
Je me rends, prends ! (The most common words in the French military lexicon, btw.)
Better their boots than ours.
Highly probable ...
She was 19 when executed. Young.
French are a bunch of warmongering cowboys who don’t like black people!
Hmmmmm? The French go in and in a couple of days Wah-la. Meanwhile in Tripoli????? Oh Hummm.
Thanks for that enlightening reply.
Ok, that gave me a good chuckle this morning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.