CIVIL WAR

U.N. Evacuates 200 Ivory Coast Staff

After attacks by Gbagbo's forces.

The United Nations is pulling out its Ivory Coast staff after several attacks on its headquarters by the forces of besieged strongman Laurent Gbagbo. The French military already secured the main airport in the city of Abidjan as a battle between Gbagbo and the U.N.-recognized President Alassane Ouattara seemed to be looming. Meanwhile, the U.N. and Outtara's government are trading accusations over a massacre in the town of Duekoue. The U.N. says Ouattara's forces are responsible for the “extrajudicial executions” of more than 330 people in the town, while Outtara's government says Gbagbo's forces did the killing—and the U.N. is to blame for allowing the civilians to be massacred. The deputy human rights director of the U.N. Ivory Coast mission blamed 220 of the deaths on Ouattara's forces and 100 on Gbagbo's. The Red Cross puts the death toll far higher, at 800 people.