Ouattara: Oust Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo with commando operation (VIDEO)

Ivory Coast's internationally recognized winner of its recent presidential election, Alassane Ouattara, has called for a commando operation to unseat incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. It has been five weeks since the presidential runoff, and Gbagbo has refused to relinquish power.

Ouattara, who is staying in an Abidjan hotel guarded by United Nations peacekeepers, called for West African nations to send in special forces to remove Gbagbo. Ouattara said an operation by the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, would work quickly and cause little damage.

"I know Mr. Gbagbo," Ouattara told the AP. "If he sees that ECOWAS troops are coming to capture him, believe me he will start running away. I know him well. He does not have the courage to face those type of situations."

The political standoff since the Nov. 28 presidential runoff has paralyzed the West African nation and forced 22,000 people to flee the country out of fear of violence.

Meanwhile, Gbagbo expelled the British and Canadian ambassadors to Ivory Coast after their governments announced they would no longer recognize Gbagbo's envoys, VOA reports.

"Incumbent government spokesman Ahoua Don Mello says Canadian ambassador Marie Isabelle Massip and United Kingdom ambassador Nicholas James Westcott are no longer welcome in Ivory Coast," it states.

BBC News reports that the expulsions are symbolic gestures because the UK ambassador is based in Ghana, and the Canadian embassy will be able to continue its work as normal.

"The British government has recognized Mr Alassane Ouattara as the democratically elected president of Cote D'Ivoire," said the UK Foreign Office. "It recognizes the legitimacy of statements made by, or on behalf of, his government. The British government does not accept the validity of statements made by others."

Watch this video on Ouattara calling for the removal of Gbagbo: