Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo criticised former colonial power France on Wednesday for destroying most of his air force without first investigating the events that led up to a bombing raid against French troops. "The French reaction was too rapid, too disproportionate," Gbagbo told French television. "There was a chain of events and today the only thing I regret is that not enough time was left to make inquiries," he said. Saturday's air strike, which killed nine French peacekeepers and a U.S. aid worker, came during an offensive launched by Gbagbo's forces to dislodge rebels who seized the north of the country in 2002 after failing to topple the president. France, which retaliated by destroying most of the West African nation's small fleet of military aircraft, said it was simply trying to prevent civil war and had no intention of overthrowing Gbagbo. "(Gbagbo) has to understand that you do not kill French soldiers without there being an immediate response, that you do not kill French soldiers with impunity. That is plain and simple and that is our commitment," French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told French television. Gbagbo said that no deliberate decision had been taken to bomb French troops. He called for an investigation into the attack in the northern rebel-held town of Bouake. Hundreds of French citizens fled Ivory Coast on Wednesday after days of anti-French riots, which have killed at least 30 demonstrators in the commercial hub Abidjan. --SP 0049 Local Time 2149 GMT
