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| Army launches assault in Comoros | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A military operation has begun in the Comoros to end a year-long rebellion on the island of Anjouan, a day after the military was ordered to retake it. | |
| Journalists in the island's main town, Mustamudu, said mortar and machine-gun fire was coming from two ships off the coast thought to be carrying troops. | |
| Anjouan's renegade leader, Mohamed Bacar, is believed to be holding out with several hundred armed police. | |
| The assault force sent to Anjouan includes African Union soldiers. | |
| On Monday, President Ahmed Sambi said the army would launch an assault soon. | |
| Mr Sambi said he had hoped that Mr Bacar and his supporters would "surrender themselves in order to avoid confrontation". | |
| Mr Bacar has defied African Union and international calls to step down since proclaiming himself president in July 2007 after an election which the federal authorities declared illegal. | |
| A history of political violence has left the tiny Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean desperately poor since independence from France in 1975. | |
| At times, the country has teetered on the brink of disintegration amid tensions between the semi-autonomous islands and the central government. |