Political mayhem continues

GUIGLO (AP):

The young man in civilian clothes did not have the right answers for troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara and they suspected he was a fighter backing his rival for the presidency. So one of the soldiers kicked the man in the teeth.

Fifteen minutes later, an Associated Press reporter saw his body, the chest torn open by bullets, dumped outside this western town.

Reprisal killings erupted as Ouattara's fighters made a lightning assault to force his rival Laurent Gbagbo from power. And although Gbagbo was captured Monday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial capital, suspected Gbagbo supporters are still being rounded up in cities and villages, especially in western Ivory Coast.

Parishioners are reporting the kidnappings of dozens of young men in San Pedro, said a Catholic priest in the cocoa-exporting port city in southwestern Ivory Coast. He asked not to be named, explaining: "We are all in danger."

"Every day, the (UN) peace-keepers are collecting and burying bodies," he said. "There is lots of dense bush here. Who knows how many bodies there are."

Like others, he said young men are being targeted, especially those between 20 and 35.

San Pedro was attacked by pro-Ouattara fighters on April 1 as Gbagbo's soldiers retreated without resistance, firing into the air.