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Empresas y finanzas

Ouattara forces open two new fronts in Ivory Coast


    ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara opened up two new military fronts in Ivory Coast's east and west on Monday, witnesses and military sources said, in an apparent escalation of their campaign to oust incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

    Witnesses said fighting erupted in the eastern village of Laodiba about 5 km (three miles) from the nearest major town of Bondoukou, near the border with Ghana, as pro-Ouattara forces tried to seize it.

    A military source said rebels also marched south to an area just outside of Daloa, in the heart of Ivory Coast's cocoa belt. Fighting had formerly been confined to the far west and Abidjan.

    (Reporting by Ange Aboa and Loucoumane Coulibaly; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by David Lewis and Mark Heinrich)