Ivory Coast Coup Attempt Fails

Security forces retook control of state broadcast facilities Monday, hours after mutinous soldiers seized them and called on comrades to join in an apparent attempt to grab power in this once-tranquil West African nation.

"The worst is over," Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou said on state radio. "The time of taking power by coups is past."

Doudou said Ivorian officials had been aware of the plot for a few days, but decided to let it go ahead to catch the plotters in the act.

While sporadic gunfire could still be heard around Abidjan at midmorning Monday, the violence had sharply diminished and the government appears to be back in control.

The attempted coup happened while President Laurent Gbagbo was out of the country.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, the streets were nearly deserted in much of the city, apart from soldiers brandishing guns. Two bodies, one in civilian clothes and the other stripped to his underwear, lay by the side of a highway on the edge of downtown.

Two paramilitary officers were killed and many others injured, Defense Minister Lida Kouassi said on state television. A number of assailants also were killed, according to Kouassi.

Fifteen people have been arrested and security forces are searching for more suspects.

The trouble began about 11:30 p.m. Sunday with the clatter of machine-guns and the thud of heavy weapons in downtown Abidjan and in a number of suburban neighborhoods.

"I heard shooting and big explosions," says an Abidjan resident who lives near the television station. "They were close enough to shake the house."

Beginning about 4 a.m., state radio, which earlier had gone off the air, began playing the national anthem, and a man who did not identify himself read a brief statement.

"At the hour that we speak, the country has undergone another page of our history. Radio and television are currently in the hands of the military," he said. "I want to reassure the population that their security is guaranteed...I ask all our brothers in arms to align themselves."

The government says small groups of men commandeered taxis and other vehicles to attack state broadcasting offices in downtown Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city, and in the exclusive Cocody suburb.

The presidential residence, a military base and a paramilitary police compound also came under attack.

The Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, has seen more than a year of political and ethnic chaos. Soldiers, speaking on condition they not be named, have warned in recent days of sharp divisions within the military. There have also been rumors of an attempted comeback by ousted junta leader Gen. Robert Guei.

The instability began with a coup in December 1999 that brought Guei to power and shook the country's reputation for stability. It was followed by two major military uprisings, tumultuous elections and a brutal wave of killings.

Presidential elections t restore democracy in October led to more violence when Guei tried to steal a win, leading to a popular uprising that brought Gbagbo to power.

But Gbagbo's triumph rapidly disintegrated into political and ethnic fighting between his supporters and those of rival opposition leader, Alassane Dramane Ouattara.

Ouattara, a Muslim, was barred from running for president and later for parliament because of questions about his nationality. He insists that he and his parents are Ivorian.

Street violence, sparked by Ouattara's exclusion, shook Abidjan again this December, and tensions persist between Gbagbo's mainly southern, Christian followers and Ouattara's mostly northern, Muslim supporters.

At least 200 people have been killed since last summer, in ethnic and political violence involving Ouattara's supporters.

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