The French go in

Reuters has the story:

French helicopters fired on military camps and armoured vehicles in its former colony of Ivory Coast after President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had authorised the involvement in response to a U.N. request.
Sarkozy's Elysee Palace office released a statement saying the operation aimed to neutralize heavy weapons belonging to troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo who are fighting forces supporting Alassane Ouattara's rival claim to the presidency. "The Secretary General of the United Nations requested the support of French forces in these operations," said the statement, which added Sarkozy had responded in line with a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
France has close to 12,000 nationals in the world's top cocoa producer and said it was sending in an extra 150 soldiers from Gabon to bring the number of French troops in its force there to 1,650.
Several dozen pro-Gbago protesters broke windows on Paris's Champs Elysees avenue shortly after news of the Ivory Coast operation emerged and about forty were arrested, police said.
"Licorne (French forces) helicopters opened fire in support of ONUCI (U.N.) operations," said French army spokesman Thierry Burkhard. "Resources were deployed against several targets: heavy weapons in camps and a group of armoured cars equipped with heavy guns and rocket-launchers."
The Elysee Palace published the letter in which U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said the situation had "seriously deteriorated" in the last three days. "In these circumstances, it is urgent for me to launch the military operations needed to put the heavy weaponry being used against civilians and blue helmets (U.N. forces) out of harm's way," the Ban Ki-moon letter to Sarkozy said. It said several sites had been identified. "Given the need to launch operations against all of these sites simultaneously, and the fact that ONUCI (U.N.) military resources are limited, I would be grateful if you could authorize the Licorne (French troops) force, which has a Security Council mandate to support ONUCI (and) conduct operations jointly with ONUCI," the U.N. chief's letter said.
Witnesses in Ivory Coast said shortly before the statement issued in Paris that U.N. helicopters fired four missiles at a pro-Gbagbo military camp in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan, a camp that is home to three battalions of the Ivorian army.
Sarkozy has held three sessions with top ministers about Ivory Coast which led to him reiterating his calls for Gbgabo to go and for the violence to stop. Gbagbo has refused to surrender power after an election last November that U.N.-certified results showed Ouattara won. Gbagbo rejected the results and accused the United Nations of bias. The standoff that followed has now turned into a resumption of the civil war of 2002-2003. Gbagbo has always blamed Paris for supporting the north in the 2002-03 war there. He has played the anti-French card, labeling Ouattara the West's man and himself as a defender against foreign interference.