Four pro-government protesters were killed in western Ivory Coast on Wednesday when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire to repel an attack on their base in a third day of anti-U.N. riots, Ivorian and U.N. officials said, according to Reuters. The deaths were the first reported in violent protests this week by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who are demanding that U.N. and French peacekeepers withdraw from the West African country, which was divided in two by a 2002 civil war. Government supporters began the protests this week to oppose a call by foreign mediators to end the mandate of the national parliament, which is dominated by Gbagbo loyalists. U.N. bases and vehicles have been attacked by hundreds of protesters. The four protesters were killed when demonstrators stormed a base used by Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers at Guiglo in the west of the world's top cocoa producer, which is split between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north. "The Guiglo camp was stormed at about 4 a.m. this morning. They were repelled by Bangladeshi soldiers ... I know there are four from among the attackers (who were killed)," U.N. spokeswoman Margherita Amodeo said.
