Patience has run out in Cote d’Ivoire. Guns that had been silent for two years became active again in early November, with President Laurent Gbagbo’s government launching an all-out air attack on rebel positions, and in the process “mistakenly” killing nine French soldiers. In retaliation, President Jacques Chirac of France ordered his troops in Cote d’Ivoire to neutralize Ivorian air power. The French military destroyed Ivorian military planes, took over the airport in Abidjan and closed it to civilian flights after a long battle with the Ivorian military. Gbagbo called on Ivorians to get out and “liberate” the airport. Hundreds of thousands swarmed through the city, ransacking French businesses, homes, and schools, burning and breaking everything on their way to the airport. They encircled the French Military base and the French soldiers responded.