United Nations-commanded helicopters have fired missiles at military positions of Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo in the country's main city, Abidjan.
The targets included the Akouedo military camp, where a helicopter fired on Gbagbo's troops at about 5pm local time (17:00 GMT) to prevent them from using heavy weapons, Nick Birnback, the spokesman for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said.
The spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force, Hamadoun Touré, specified that the attack was not against rebels but against "weapons used by Gbagbo against civilians and against UNOCI".
France said its military was supporting the UN peacekeeping force at UN request.
Meanwhile, there were reports that forces loyal the internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara had seized Gbagbo's official residence in Abidjan. Patrick Achi, the spokesman for Ouattara's government, told Reuters news agencythat he did not know if Gbagbo was in the residence at the time it was seized.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from Bassam, just outside Abidjan, said there were suggestions that the UN and France were supporting Ouattara, making it easier for his forces to gain ground in Abidjan.
"There are reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, had a phone call with Ouattara earlier today," she said. "We don't know what was said but this is an indication that there is some kind of relationship between France and Ouattara."
Earlier on Monday, a leading ally of Ouattara called for a "rapid offensive" in Abidjan.
Guillaume Soro, Ouattara's prime minister, said that fighters sent into the centre of the city had reported a "generalised panic" among Gbagbo's soldiers.
"The situation is now ripe for a rapid offensive... " he told the TCI television station. "The operation will be rapid because we have discovered the exact number of operational tanks on the ground. Ivorians must trust in the Republican Forces [Ouattara's army]."
Residents 'on edge'
Ouattara's forces have effectively cornered Gbagbo and his closest supporters after four days of fierce fighting.
Al Jazeera's Mutasa said the people living outside Abidjan were "on edge" after hearing that an "all-out assault by Ouattara's forces is imminent".
"The disturbing thing is the checkpoints and barricades being manned by young men who are unemployed, some of them intoxicated, armed with machetes, [who] decide who goes in and out of Abidjan," she said.
"So the residents are still living in fear. It is dangerous, however, despite a lull in the fighting; they are concerned about what the future may hold."
But Gbagbo shows no signs of wavering, scoring a coup as his army chief of staff General Philippe Mangou seemed set to rejoin his side after seeking refuge in the South African ambassador's residence earlier this week, the AFP news agency reported.
The RTI television station, a vital means of communication between Gbagbo and his loyalists, was briefly captured by pro-Ouattara fighters last week before Gbagbo troops regained control and restored the signal.
Messages on the station have urged civilians to form a "human shield" around Gbagbo's residence.
'Massacre denial'
Meanwhile, a first group of foreigners fleeing chaos was evacuated on Sunday as the French army took over the airport in Abidjan, wracked by the fighting.
After the French Licorne (Unicorn) force took control of the airport, Paris sent 300 more troops to the city as more than 1,500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military camp.
Gerard Longuet, France's defence minister, said evacuation of its 12,000 citizens in Ivory Coast was under consideration.
The latest fighting follows an alleged massacre of hundreds of people in the small town of Duekoue in the west.
The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast [ONUCI] said on Saturday that traditional hunters known as Dozos had joined Ouattara's forces in killing 330 people in Duekoue.
Ouattara's government said in a statement that Dozos were not part of its forces and invited international human rights organisations to investigate the killings and rights violations.
A Catholic charity, Caritas, said up to 1,000 people had been killed by unknown attackers wielding machetes and guns. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier estimated the death toll at around 800 people.
It is not clear whether the 330 counted by ONUCI were included in the figures.
Alistair Dutton, the humanitarian director of Caritas, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that an investigating team had found bodies lying in the streets and the bushes.
He said the victims appeared to be civilians who had been "caught up somehow between [the two] warring factions".
Aid organisations say atrocities that could qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed by both sides.
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