Ivory Coast's army announced today its forces had entered the West African country's second city of Bouake, but residents said it was still held at least partly by rebel troops.
French troops stood by to rescue hundreds of trapped Westerners, including scores of US children, trapped in Bouake since it was seized by the rebels last Thursday in a bloody military uprising.
"Our people have gone into Bouake since yesterday," a military spokesman told state-run Radio Ivory Coast.
Residents of Bouake reported heavy gunfire overnight and fighting with small arms and anti-tank grenades in some parts of the market city of more than half a million. Firing had died down by morning.
Rebels in the northern city of Korhogo said they had foiled an attack from Ferkessedougou, 40 kilometres to the east, by the paramilitary gendarmerie.
Mobile phones the rebels have used to communicate were cut off abruptly in Bouake overnight.
