French Defence Minister: French Soldiers In Ivory Coast Killed By Belarusian Mercenaries 11:05, 10/11/2004
An attack which killed nine French soldiers was deliberate and carried out by Belarusian mercenaries, told French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, visiting a hospital in Paris were wounded French soldier taken from Ivory Coast was placed, BBC inform. No details were made known by the Minister. In the result of the crisis in this African country, which lasts for several days already, tens of people have died, and more than 600 injured, according to the Red Cross.
A wave of anti-French violence erupted in Ivory Coast on Sunday after French troops destroyed the small Ivorian air force – two Su-25 fighters and three helicopters - in retaliation for a government air strike that killed nine French soldiers. THe government accuses France in cooperation with armed rebels in Ivory Coast, and in civil war kindling. 10 demonstrators were hurt in result of disorders.
4,000 French soldiers are in Ivory Coast as part of a UN force of 10,000 peacekeepers. They are to control violence between supporters and opponents of the government. An air strike that has left nine French soldiers dead followed after government aircraft had begun daily air strikes on rebel-held territory in the north. Before that for more that a year there were no armed conflicts at the territory of the country.
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