Haiti police deny attempt on Aristide's life

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP):

Haitian police are rejecting claims by ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's associates that he was the target of an assassination attempt.

Shots were fired at the former leader's motorcade on Monday and two people were wounded.

Aristide ally Yvon Feuille has described the incident as an "assassination attempt" and alleges the shooters were police.

But Deputy Commissioner Jean Alix Pierre-Louis asserts the chaos was caused by partisans of political factions who threw rocks and fired guns when Aristide's motorcade wound by an intersection.

A cell phone video made public by Aristide's faction doesn't capture the full incident, but shows rocks raining down on patrolmen, who take cover and fire their weapons.

Inspector Prenel Duval acknowledges that officers fired weapons. But he says there was "a lot of shooting from different directions".