Residents burn tires and block the street where security forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's strongman Laurent Gbagbo opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least six women. [Photo/Agencies]

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - Soldiers backing Cote d'Ivoire's defiant leader mowed down women protesting his refusal to leave power in a hail of gunfire on Thursday, killing at least six and shocking a nation where women's marches have historically been used as a last resort against an unrestrained army.

Because the president's security force has shown almost no reserve in opening fire on unarmed civilians, the women decided this week to organize the march in the nation's commercial capital, assuming soldiers would be too ashamed to open fire.

But at least six of the thousands of women demonstrating on Thursday were killed on the spot, said Mohamed Dosso, an assistant to the mayor of Abobo, who said he saw the bodies.

The 3-month-old conflict in Cote d'Ivoire has entered a new level of intensity. With each passing day, the regime of Laurent Gbagbo is proving it is willing to go to any length to stay in office, following an election that international observers say he lost.

Sirah Drane, 41, who helped organize the march, said she was holding the megaphone and preparing to address the large crowd that had gathered at a traffic circle in Abobo.

"That's when we saw the tanks," she said. "There were thousands of women. And we said to ourselves, 'They won't shoot at women'. ... I heard a boom. They started spraying us ... I tried to run and fell down. The others trampled me. Opening fire on unarmed women? It's inconceivable."

The attack prompted an immediate rebuke from the US, which like most governments has urged Gbagbo to step down and has recognized his rival as the country's legitimate president.

"The moral bankruptcy of Laurent Gbagbo is evident as his security forces killed women protesters," said US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley in a Twitter message.

In New York, the UN Security Council said it is "deeply concerned" about the escalation of violence in Cote d'Ivoire and that it could lead to a resurgence of civil war there.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in the west African country, including 32 in the last 24 hours, almost all of them men who had voted for opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, according to UN figures and combined with deaths confirmed by The Associated Press.

Last week, Gbagbo's security forces entered the Abobo neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars, a shocking escalation indicating the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens.

Associated Press