Two Fijian soldiers die in gunbattle with rebel troops

Military surround headquarters

The fighting began around 1 p.m. (0100 GMT) Thursday when the Counter Revolutionary Warfare unit, or CRW, attempted to seize the Queen Elizabeth Barracks and oust Bainimarama. The military later recaptured the barracks and surrounded its headquarters.

Disgruntled CRW members were among the gunmen who joined Speight and stormed Fiji's parliament in May in the name of indigenous Fijian rights. They held Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, hostage for several weeks.

Fiji's ethnic Indians, who make up about 44 percent of the 800,000 population, dominate the country's economy.

Speight, who was arrested and charged with treason shortly after the standoff ended, is in jail. He has been at odds with Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who refused to accept Speight's candidates for a new government to lead Fiji for the next two years.

Qarase was appointed by Bainimarama.

On Thursday, Bainimarama fled the barracks about two hours after the fighting began. The army launched a counter-attack approximately two hours later, and more than 60 soldiers loyal to Bainimarama fought their way into the barracks.

"The CRW are exchanging gunfire with the army inside the barracks," said an army officer who fled the barracks just after the shooting began.

"The armory has been taken over," he said.

Reports of hostages

Soon after the shooting erupted, between 20 and 30 army officers were seen running from their headquarters to their residences, where they were barricading themselves inside. Guards in front of the barracks panicked and ran around trying to find out what was happening.

"The CRW soldiers were initially firing from a vehicle but have since been seen positioned around the camp," reported independent Web site fijilive (www.fijilive.com)

Local media reported that special forces members had taken soldiers hostage inside the barracks, and had demanded to negotiate the military's leadership. Hussain told CNN that no negotiations had taken place.

"I have a gun to my head," said one of the hostages in a telephone interview with FM96 radio. "There are a number of army officers being held inside the army barracks.

"The rebels have wanted all army officers from lieutenant up to turn up at the army camp to discuss grievances of army personnel against the leadership of the military," he said.

The streets of central Suva were deserted after Fiji's military-backed interim government called for calm, saying schools should close and workers should go home early. Suva's main business district was looted and burnt during the May 19 coup.

'Confusing and chaotic'

Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo was in Australia for medical treatment, and Qarase was on his way to Suva after arriving back in Fiji earlier in the day from a Pacific forum in Kiribati.

"It's still confusing and chaotic ... gunfire continues," U.S. Ambassador to Fiji Ossman Siddique told CNN.

"For the time being, I think the matter has not yet settled," he said. "We hope that this plays out real quickly and that the government gets the upper hand."

Phil Goff, New Zealand's Foreign minister, said it appeared as though the CRW attack was linked to an investigation Bainimarama launched into 150 soldiers for their suspected involvement in the May coup.

"Those people clearly felt that they were under threat," Goff said. "(They) probably felt that they had nothing to lose. They have tried to stage a coup to replace the military commander.

"If they were to succeed," Goff said, "that clearly would lead in the direction to the release of Mr. Speight and an end to the inquiry of those people who were behind the illegal and violent overthrow of the constitutional government of Fiji."