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Iraqi forces have clashed with a settlement of Iranian opposition exiles in an offensive that reportedly left at least three people dead.
The violence took place at Camp Ashraf, a settlement near Iraq’s border with Iran — home to some 3,500 members of the banned left-wing Islamic group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, aka People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran.
In Gaza five people have been killed and three wounded in Israeli airstrikes launched in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli school bus.
The Israeli military said it had killed two militants from the Islamist group Hamas and hospital sources said three Palestinian civilians died and three were injured.
An Israeli cabinet minister said that the strikes would continue and were designed to make people regret firing on Israel.
The strikes hit the town of Khan Yunis knocking out electricity supplies in some parts of the territory. Hamas facilities and smuggling tunnels were also damaged.
Heavy arms fire rang out Wednesday near the home of the country’s strongman who remained holed up in his residence, as forces backing his rival assaulted the residence to try to force him out, diplomats and witnesses said.
While some are reporting Gbagbo is holed up in a subterranean bunker, incumbent strongman Laurent Gbagbo himself told French radio he is simply in his house, reports the BBC.
“I am in the residence - the residence of the president of the republic,” Gbagbo said. “When it rains, can’t one take shelter inside one’s house?”
Yves Doumbia, a spokesman for the forces backing democratically elected president Alassane Ouattara said his men were repelled by heavy fire from within the compound after piercing its outer perimeter.
Heavy fighting is continuing in Abidjan where forces loyal to Cote d’Ivoire’s presidential rivals are battling for control of the country’s main city.
Fighters supporting Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognised as Cote d’Ivoire’s legitimate president, launched an assault around the presidential palace early on Tuesday as they attempt to oust incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo from power.
Machine gun and heavy weapons fire could be heard near the palace before dawn, witnesses told Reuters, while a spokesman for Ouattara’s government has claimed its troops have already occupied Gbagbo’s official presidential residence further to the east in Abidjan.
According to Al-Jazeera, the Libyan rebels have taken advantage of the latest NATO air raids to recapture most of the eastern oil city of Brega. They are now trying to dislodge Gaddafi forces from industrial estates in the city’s western suburbs.
In Misurata in the west, rebel forces and local people have lost dozens more men and women………………..