PrairiePundit

Fox News: Ivory Coast gunmen who killed 16 had sights set on Obama official, source says ... Assistant Secretary of Commerce Marcus Jadotte was leading a group of Americans in Grand-Bassam, including college recruiters from the University of Florida. U.S. embassy officials from the capital city of Abidjan were also included in the group, according to the source. The delegation was supposed to arrive at the scene of the attack, Etoile du Sud, a hotel popular with Westerners. The delegation had not yet made it to the hotel when the attack occurred. A jihadist group called Ansar Dine, or "defenders of the faith," linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was suspected of the attack, according to the source.Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb later claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a Jihad monitoring website cited by the Associated Press. ... The targets were saved by tardiness it appears.  This terrorist attack was taking place near the same time of a ma...

From the BBC: Ivory Coast generals switch sides Probably not timely enough since the war is basically over and their side lost.  The man they backed is in custody and it appears the switch it timed in hopes of avoiding the same fate.

Image via Wikipedia Independent on Sunday: The battle for Abidjan escalated last night as forces loyal to international pariah Laurent Gbagbo fired on the French ambassador's residence. It was unclear if there had been any casualties, but French military sources vowed a "strong response". Attack helicopters were seen leaving the French base soon after the mortar and rocket attack, which was the strongest attempt yet by Mr Gbagbo to force former colonial power France into a fight which would rally Ivorian nationalists. Claims from the UN that Gbagbo's forces had regained the highly important areas of Plateau and Cocody were unconfirmed. A spokesman for the French forces refused to discuss what he called rumours, with Major Frederic Daguillon making only the enigmatic comment: "The helicopters have gone up and their engines are working just fine." However, it became clear that previous air strikes by the UN and France aime...