Ivorian Soldiers Open Fore on Unarmed Women Protesters

The government of Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader said the country's deepening political crisis has "crossed over to a new level of horror and barbarism" after soldiers backing his rival fatally shot six female demonstrators.

Thousands of women were protesting sitting president Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to cede power when tanks showed up and soldiers opened fire on Thursday. (See pictures of violence in the Ivory Coast.)

"Indeed, we anticipated everything short of imagining that one could shoot live rounds at unarmed women, all the more with tanks," said Patrick Achi, the spokesman for the government of Alassane Ouattara, whom the U.N. said defeated Gbagbo in the Nov. 28 election.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in the three-month-long dispute, but Thursday's deaths shocked a nation where many assumed soldiers would never open fire on a women's march.