Clashes spread across Cote d'Ivoire

Armed groups controlling northern Cote d'Ivoire claim they have seized a town in government territory and are heading south, raising the prospects of a return to civil war. The fresh violence followed another night of clashes in the country's main city of Abidjan between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president, and opponents who say he lost an election in November. The UN and foreign governments have demanded that Gbagbo hand power to rival Alassane Ouattara, widely seen as the winner of the contest. There were also reports of gunfire in the capital Yamoussoukro. "I can confirm that we are now in Zouan-Hounien," Ouattara Seydou, a spokesman for the rebel New Forces, which support Ouattara, said, He said the fighters were now in the process of moving towards Bin-Houin, a town from where they had been attacked by Gbagbo's forces. An army spokesman said he had "no information" on any rebel movements in the west, near the border with Liberia. The towns are small, remote and do not lie on a key axis, but the rebel announcement to have seized territory from Gbagbo's loyalists marked a significant escalation in a crisis which has turned increasingly violent this week.