The commander of Ivory Coast's ground offensive against rebels in the north ordered troops to withdraw from the frontline today as France flew in more soldiers to its West African former colony.
The United Nations and France demanded that President Laurent Gbagbo end fighting after his forces killed nine French peacekeepers and injured 23 in an air raid on a rebel-held town.
France hit back by destroying two warplanes and five helicopters, flew in about 400 more soldiers to bolster its 4,000-strong force, and threatened to press for a UN Security Council arms embargo and other sanctions.
"It is with death in my soul, with many regrets and with tears in my eyes that I ask you to pull back from your positions because unfortunately we have lost our air power," Colonel Philippe Mangou told soldiers in the capital Yamoussoukro.
Thousands of angry pro-Gbagbo supporters poured onto the streets of the main city Abidjan and French troops fired teargas and warning shots from a helicopter to disperse the mobs.
Gangs of youths rampaged through night in the commercial capital, attacking foreign nationals and looting shops.
"I have shoes, jeans, a shirt, watch and wedding ring. Everything else has gone," said one foreigner who scrambled into a hovering French helicopter as machete-wielding youths burst on to the roof his apartment block.
"Last night we thought we were going to get killed. I've never been so happy to see a soldier."
Gbagbo's forces last week shattered an 18-month truce with rebels who hold the northern half of the world's biggest cocoa grower by launching three days of air strikes and sending soldiers into a neutral buffer zone.
France has been caught in the middle of the conflict in Ivory Coast ever since rebels seized the north after a failed attempt to oust Gbagbo in September 2002. Thousands of people were killed in fighting before a truce was agreed in May 2003.