Residents reported rebels patrolling the city of Man at
daylight Thursday, with no government forces in sight.
"We have taken control of Man," rebel commander Felix Doh
said by telephone from Man. "There are still pockets of resistance, and
we'll be taking care of them soon."
Locals in Man, a city of 135,000, said the insurgents were
Liberians, speaking only English � making them members of the latest and
most-feared faction in the three-month-old rebellion that has shattered
this once-stable West African nation.
"The fighting went all night," said one man reached by
telephone at his home in the center of Man, "The only soldiers in town are
rebels. There are no loyalists."
Residents said the insurgents also held the city's
airport. Western military officials confirmed that rebels controlled Man,
and rebels boasted Ivory Coast's vital commercial capital in the south was
next.
"Our objective is to get to Abidjan and control the whole
country," Doh said.
Government soldiers backed by foreign mercenaries, tanks
and helicopter gunships had made Man one of the most heavily defended and
fought-over sites in the growing war splitting a country that is the
world's largest cocoa producer, and a leading coffee producer.
French forces evacuated foreigners from Man on Nov. 30
after rebels took the city in a surprise attack days earlier.
On Dec. 1, government forces reclaimed the hill-ringed
town. Rebels since have carried out several ambushes south of the city,
and Wednesday attacked full force to retake it.
Fighting in the West last month opened a new front in the
war, and introduced Liberians to the fight � ill-disciplined, often
drugged fighters much feared by residents.
Ivory Coast's rebellion broke out Sept. 19 with a failed
coup attempt, and quickly saw rebels seize the northern half of the once
tranquil country. Rebels are demanding that President Laurent Gbagbo
resign, opening the way for new elections.
West African leaders late Wednesday approved deployment of
what's expected to be a 1,500-strong force to try to enforce a shattered
cease-fire. Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, leaders picked Senegalese and
Nigerian commanders for the force, due to deploy Dec. 31.
France, Ivory Coast's colonial ruler, already has more
than 1,000 troops in the country and is building to a deployment of 2,500.
French forces are charged with protecting their nationals and other
foreigners and overseeing the cease-fire, but are taking an increasingly
muscular role.
A key economic hub and port for West Africa, Ivory Coast
was West Africa's single-most prosperous and stable nation until its first
and only coup, in 1999. Skyscraper-lined Abidjan, a city with millions of
immigrant African workers, long has been a base for international business
in the region.
