France condemns attack on village by Ivory Coast forces

France has condemned a deadly attack on a fishing village in Ivory Coast by government helicopter gunships.

Rebels threatened to launch a general offensive in retaliation for Tuesday's assault, the latest in a series of violations of an October ceasefire.

In a statement issued in Paris, France's Foreign Ministry said the bombing killed 12 civilians and injured several more. "France considers this violation of the ceasefire accord to be intolerable ... and will ask Ivory Coast's authorities for explanations. The ceasefire must be respected by all," the statement said.

French troops enforcing the truce in Ivory Coast confirmed that a helicopter fired on dugout canoes and a market in the village of Menakro, some 40 miles west of the central rebel stronghold of Bouake.

The rebel leader Guillaum Soro said two Mi-24 helicopters piloted by white mercenaries fired rockets and heavy arms at the village, destroying houses and killing people, including women and children. He estimated that 14 people were dead. Rebels have been given a "free hand to launch a general offensive at any moment", Mr Soro said.

A spokesman for Ivory Coast's army, Lieutenant Colonel Jules Yao Yao, said government forces were attacked first and then responded. He questioned whether the dead were civilians, saying more than 1,000 young people had been recruited by insurgents in rebel-held areas.

"How in these conditions can one affirm that the dead ... are civilians?" he said on state radio yesterday. "The rebels use tricks and treachery in their action by using civilians as human shields."

The former French colony has been brought to its knees by the war, which started last September after a failed coup attempt by rebels.

More than 2,000 French soldiers are in the country to enforce the oft-violated ceasefire between rebels holding the North and the government in the South, and to protect French citizens and other foreign nationals.