Fighting breaks out between forces loyal to President Ouattara

Fighting has broken out among the forces that brought President Alassane Ouattara to power in Ivory Coast last week.

Heavy machine-gun fire rocked Abidjan's working-class suburb of Abobo as the Invisible Commandos group, which controls parts of Abidjan, fought with troops brought from the north of the country. Infighting among pro-Ouattara forces has also erupted in the south-western cocoa port of San Pedro.

The Invisible Commandos are led by Ibrahim "IB" Coulibaly, a warlord who orchestrated two failed coup attempts in 1999 and 2002.

Ivory Coast's new army of former rebels led by Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who is also the Defence Minister, attacked Mr Coulibaly's headquarters on Wednesday but met with fierce resistance that lasted more than an hour.

Mr Coulibaly and Mr Soro are longtime rivals. A fighter in Mr Coulibaly's forces said that they drove government troops back and they finally left. Mr Coulibaly has pledged allegiance to Mr Ouattara. Mr Coulibaly was the head of a bodyguard team protecting Mr Ouattara's wife in the early 1990s, when Mr Ouattara was prime minister.

Yesterday the African Union lifted its sanctions against Ivory Coast that targeted the ousted president, Laurent Gbagbo.