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 Jamaican security forces are fighting with gunmen as the government attempts to take control of an alleged drug lord's stronghold in the capital. 
 
 Gunfire erupted as troops and police stormed the Tivoli Gardens area to search for Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who is wanted in the US. 
 
 A soldier was killed. It follows two police deaths on Sunday. 
 
 Supporters of Mr Coke are fighting to stop his extradition to the US on drug and gun-running charges. 
 
 TIVOLI GARDENS Continue reading the main story Located on Jamaica's south-eastern coast, far from tourist hub in north 
 
 Built in late 1960s on grounds of a cleared dump known as the Dungle or "dung hill" 
 
 Warren-like public housing project with population of about 25,000 
 
 One of Jamaica's notorious "garrison" slums - described as "a state within a state" 
 
 Power base of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's West Kingston constituency 
 
 Invaded in 2001 by security forces in search of illegal weapons; 25 people killed in three-day stand-off 
 
 Four residents died in a similar operation in 1997 Jamaica unrest: Your stories Kingston under siege 
 
 So far there is no indication that the security forces have been successful in tracking down their target in the warren-like slum. 
 
 Gunmen in the area are reported to be heavily armed. There are unconfirmed reports of civilian victims. 
 
 Mr Coke, who insists he is a legitimate businessman, enjoys the support of many impoverished Kingston residents who see him as a benefactor and have vowed to protect him at any cost. 
 
 There are also reports of violence in other parts of the capital, raising fears that the unrest is spreading. 
 
 A state of emergency remains in place in parts of Kingston. 
 
 The restrictions were imposed on Friday after several police stations were attacked following an announcement by the prime minister agreeing to the extradition of Mr Coke. 
 
 Heavy resistance 
 
 The BBC's Nick Davis in Kingston says the operation started about noon on Monday, when large numbers of soldiers were seen heading to the poor Tivoli Gardens area. 
 
 AT THE SCENE Continue reading the main story Overnight the central streets of this capital city echoed to the occasional boom of an explosion, or the sharp retorts of a gun battle. Grey smoke billowed from two areas in the impoverished Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood. There have been deaths. First-hand reports are hard to come by, but Jamaicans who have spoken to people living in the area say they are confined to their homes, and desperate to find a safe way out. They are squeezed between the army and police on the one hand, and gunmen trying to protect the local big man - Christopher Coke, known here simply as Dudus. 
 
 Plumes of smoke could be seen coming from the area as helicopters buzzed overhead. 
 
 Security Minister Dwight Nelson said the soldiers, in a joint operation with police, had broken down the barricades around Tivoli Gardens and were conducting a house-to-house search for Mr Coke. 
 
 "The purpose of the operation is to execute the warrant for extradition and to detain [Coke] so he can appear in court," he told the BBC. 
 
 He insisted the police were "doing everything in their power to ensure the city remains safe". 
 
 But some reports said police had met heavy resistance from gunmen as they tried to enter Tivoli Gardens. 
 
 Residents in the area were advised to remain indoors but the streets were already quiet as Jamaica observed its Labour Day holiday. 
 
 The US State Department said the fighting had intermittently blocked the road to Kingston's international airport and forced the cancellation of some flights. 
 
 Benefactor 
 
 Tivoli Gardens, the constituency represented in parliament by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, is the stronghold of Mr Coke, 41, who describes himself as a community leader. 
 
 His supporters see him as a man who is fulfilling a role that the government does not, such as giving them money to support their children. 
 
 Before the fighting, they staged protests and barricaded streets to stop his arrest and extradition. 
 
 One resident of Kingston, Suzanne, rang the BBC to say Mr Coke provided a valuable service to the community - unlike the politicians. 
 
 "If your grandmother dies, you go to him and he buries her," she said. 
 
 "Okay, that's a fact. If you're a politician you're not going to find him, especially Bruce [Golding], you're not going to find him anywhere in the constituency, so you go to him [Dudus]. 
 
 "You need your child to go to school - you go to him, and this is how it's been, this kind of patronage." 
 
 Life sentence 
 
 The US justice department accuses Mr Coke of being one of the world's most dangerous drug barons. 
 
 He is said to lead a gang called the Shower Posse - owing to the volume of bullets used in shootings - and operate an international smuggling network. 
 
 He faces a life sentence if convicted on charges filed against him in New York. 
 
 The gang has also been blamed for numerous murders in Jamaica and the US. 
 
 The trouble started last week when Mr Golding said he was prepared to send Mr Coke to the US on drugs and weapons trafficking charges. 
 
 The decision reversed nine months of opposition to his extradition. 
 
 Mr Golding had argued that the evidence against Mr Coke was obtained illegally by intercepting mobile telephone calls. 
 
 But he changed his mind in the face of growing public discontent, and questions about his possible ties to Mr Coke. 
 
 He has denounced the unrest as a "calculated assault on the authority of the state that cannot be tolerated". ||||| More than 1,000 police and soldiers assaulted a public housing complex occupied by heavily armed gangsters defending an alleged drug lord wanted by the U.S., waging a major offensive in the heart of West Kingston's ramshackle slums. 
 
 Alleged drug gang leader Christopher "Dudus" Coke is shown in this undated photo. Jamaican Police have an arrest warrant for "Dudus", who is sought by U.S. authorities on drug and arms trafficking charges... (Associated Press) 
 
 Security forces broke through barbed-wire barricades and fought their way into the warren-like Tivoli Gardens neighborhood Monday afternoon. Sporadic gunfire could be heard into the night echoing across the darkened slums, where authorities cut off power. Military helicopters flying with their lights off buzzed overhead. 
 
 Masked gunmen swarmed around West Kingston trying to prevent the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who has been indicted in New York on drug and arms trafficking charges. The U.S. Justice Department considers him one of the world's most dangerous drug lords. 
 
 While fighting raged in Tivoli Gardens, gunbattles spread to other volatile slums close to Kingston, the capital that sits on Jamaica's southeastern coast, far from the tourist resorts on the north shore. 
 
 It was not immediately clear what was happening inside the virtual fortresses where Coke's supporters began massing last week after Prime Minister Bruce Golding dropped his nine-month stonewalling against extraditing Coke, who has ties to the governing party. 
 
 Authorities said two police officers had been killed and at least six wounded since Sunday, and at least one Jamaican soldier was shot dead during Monday's fighting at Tivoli Gardens, the Caribbean island's first housing project. There were no details on casualties inside that neighborhood or other poor areas where clashes erupted. 
 
 A woman in Tivoli Gardens told Radio Jamaica that she and her terrified family were hunkered down in their apartment as a firefight raged outside. 
 
 "I really pray that somebody will find the love in their heart and stop this right now. It is just too much, my brother," the woman told the station, the sound of a gunbattle nearby. 
 
 Gangsters loyal to Coke began barricading streets and preparing for battle immediately after Golding caved in to a growing public outcry over his opposition to extradition. Jamaica's leader, whose represents West Kingston in Parliament, had claimed the U.S. indictment relied on illegal wiretap evidence. 
 
 West Kingston, which includes the Trenchtown slum where reggae superstar Bob Marley was raised, is the epicenter of the violence. But security forces also came under fire in areas outside that patchwork of gritty slums. 
 
 Gunmen shot at police while trying to erect barricades in a poor section of St. Catherine parish, which is just outside the two parishes where the government on Sunday implemented a monthlong state of emergency. 
 
 A police station in an outlying area of Kingston parish also was showered with bullets by a roving band of gunmen with high-powered rifles. 
 
 Security Minister Dwight Nelson said "police are on top of the situation," but gunfire was reported in several poor communities and brazen gunmen even shot up Kingston's central police station. 
 
 The drug trade is deeply entrenched in Jamaica, which is the largest producer of marijuana in the region and where gangs have become powerful organized crime networks involved in international gun smuggling. It fuels one of the world's highest murder rates; the island of 2.8 million people had about 1,660 homicides in 2009. 
 
 In a sun-splashed island known more for reggae music and all-inclusive resorts, the violence erupted Sunday afternoon after nearly a week of rising tensions over the possible extradition of Coke to the United States, where he faces a possible sentence of life in prison. 
 
 He leads one of the gangs that control politicized slums known as "garrisons." Political parties created the gangs in the 1970s to rustle up votes. The gangs have since turned to drug trafficking, but each remains closely tied to a political party. Coke's gang is tied to the governing Labor Party. 
 
 The U.S. State Department said Monday it was "the responsibility of the Jamaican government to locate and arrest Mr. Coke." A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman denied widespread rumors that U.S. officials were meeting with Coke's lawyers. 
 
 Coke's lead attorney, Don Foote, told reporters his legal team had planned to have talks with U.S. officials at the embassy but the meeting was canceled. 
 
 Foote refused to say whether Coke was hunkered down in the barricaded Tivoli Gardens slum or was somewhere else in the country.
– At least one Jamaican soldier was killed as 1,000 troops and police stormed the Kingston stronghold of alleged drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke. Bodies could be seen in the street as forces carried out house-to-house searches in the Tivoli Gardens housing complex, the BBC reports. Several people were arrested during the offensive but Coke is not believed to be among them. Gun battles between security forces and gunmen seeking to block Coke's extradition to the US have spread to other parts of Kingston and a state of emergency remains in place, AP reports. Several police stations have been attacked and at least two policemen have died in unrest since Sunday. The bloodshed is "inescapable and unavoidable," a spokesman for the ruling Labour Party said. "We hope that out of the national crisis there will come a rebirth of Jamaica, the land we love."