Ivory Coast: 11 Die in Twin Attacks on Army Barracks and Police Station

At least six soldiers have been killed in an attack on a military base in Ivory Coast's main City, Abidjan.

A group of armed assailants in civilian clothes reportedly launched a pre-dawn raid in the Akouedo neighbourhood on the eastern edge of the city.

"Individuals tried to take the new camp in Akouedo by surprise. The prompt reaction of our forces put down the attack," Guillaume Soro, the president of Ivory Coast's parliament, stated on Twitter.

"The guards were able to react. The situation is under control," he said.

The Akouedo raid came just hours after five people died in a shooting rampage centred on a police station and army checkpoint in Yopougon, Abidjan's most populous commune.

The district suffered heavy fighting during the battle for control of Abidjan last year, which followed the disputed presidential election of November 2010.

Defence minister Paul Koffi has told the AFP news agency the Yopougon attack was an apparent bid to free people who had been arrested the previous day.

Ivory Coast officials claimed in June that they had thwarted a coup plot which originated in Ghana, accusing loyalists to former president Laurent Gbagbo of trying to encourage subversion. Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front dismissed charges as unfounded.

Gbagbo's refusal to step down in favour of to Alassane Ouattara after the November 2010 election triggered violence that claimed 3,000 lives. The former president is facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.