Aides: Ivory Coast Former Rebels Are Attacking

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Aides to Ivory Coast's renegade warlord said Monday that former rebels who have joined the new army attacked them in Abidjan's sprawling Yopougon suburb.

Both forces have been fighting in the area to dislodge pockets of resistance by remnants of militiamen loyal to arrested former president Laurent Gbagbo.

The attack, which an aide said started Monday morning, comes the day after warlord Ibrahim "IB" Coulibaly failed to turn up for a meeting with longtime rival Defense Minister Guillaume Soro.

The aides, who would not give names for security reasons, also said forces from the new army were massing heavy weapons on a road in Cocody's Angre neighborhood, where they expect an imminent attack. A reporter, however, went through Angre all the way to the neighborhood of Abobo and did not see any heavy weapons.

On Friday President Alassane Ouattara ordered Coulibaly to lay down his arms and Soro's fighters to return to their barracks in Bouake. On Saturday, Coulibaly said he was ready to lay down his arms, but said it would take time to organize.

Coulibaly and Soro fought full-scale battles for leadership of the former rebels who propelled Ouattara to power after Gbagbo refused to accept his defeat at Nov. 28 presidential elections.

Colleagues of Coulibaly said they were meeting with Ouattara on Monday, but Ouattara spokeswoman Affoussy Bamba said Ouattara's top aide was not aware of a planned meeting.

Coulibaly's aide on Monday said they were waiting for a U.N. escort to take them to the meeting. But, he said, the U.N. called him to say they had not received authority to escort Coulibaly, and the U.N. could not guarantee his security.

Coulibaly has helped orchestrate two coup attempts in Ivory Coast, including a successful one in 1999, and in the past has indicated his own presidential aspirations, though he has said that he accepts Ouattara's authority.

The West African nation, the world's top cocoa producer, has been in crisis for more than a decade. Coulibaly led the 2002 rebellion that divided the country between a rebel-held north and government-run south until Soro forced him into exile.

He re-emerged in Abidjan in January at the head of the "Invisible Commandos" to start the battle against Gbagbo's forces after soldiers fired mortar shells and rockets into Abobo, a neighborhood that voted en masse for Ouattara.

Also Monday, an officer in Ivory Coast's new army said that hundreds of combatants who fought to install President Ouattara have returned to their barracks.

Col. Gaoussou Soumahourou said they began returning to their barracks in the northern city of Bouake even before Ouattara's order Friday. Ouattara said the war had ended with the April 11 arrest of Gbagbo, whose refusal to accept electoral defeat led to prolonged fighting that killed hundreds.

"Many (fighters) have already returned to Bouake but we are just keeping here those we need to complete our missions in Yopougon and Abobo," Soumahourou said, referring to two Abidjan neighborhoods where fighting has continued. "Six hundred to 700 have gone back to Bouake in the last week, others will leave tomorrow, it's continuing. When we have completed our mission we will return to our barracks as the president has ordered."

A few dozen fighters were at Soumahourou's temporary base on the outskirts of the commercial capital of Abidjan on Monday. A week ago it was teeming with thousands of fighters and looted vehicles.