Gbagbo troops reportedly 'hit' Ouattara hotel HQ

The BBC is reporting witnesses and a UN official as saying the Golf Hotel in Abidjan had come under mortar and small-arms fire, while a nearby UK embassy has been evacuated.

"The FDS [pro-Gbagbo Defence and Security Forces] are attacking us and we are trying to push them back," one fighter with the pro-Ouattara forces was reported as saying by AFP.

"The firing is very very close. Snipers fired bursts from Kalashnikovs. The pro-Gbagbos are attacking us on all fronts," a hotel resident was also quoted as saying.

AFP is also reporting that UN peacekeepers - tasked by the Security Council with protecting civilians in Ivory Coast - had returned fired back.

"The Golf Hotel was attacked with mortars," UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said, adding that the attack had come from south of Abidjan's lagoon, away from the presidential residence.

"In conformity with our mandate to protect the Golf Hotel where President Ouattara and his team are, the peacekeepers responded by targeting the origin of the firing coming from the other side of the lagoon. We intentionally avoided the residence of President Gbagbo."

Alassane Ouattara – currently at the head of the armed uprising - was judged to have won the presidential election, but Gbagbo has refused to step down.  Gbagbo  quickly became surrounded in his residence for days by pro-Ouattara troops.

However, a Gbagbo spokesman for denied that forces supporting him had carried out the attack. "It's absolutely false. There has been no attack on the Golf (hotel). It's an imaginary attack." Ahoua Don Mello was reported as saying by AFP.