Bob Marley the mercenary held in Ivory Coast

A MERCENARY known as "Bob Marley", accused of massacres in the Ivory Coast in support of ousted president Laurent Gbagbo, has been arrested.

He was captured with around ten of his fighters in south-east Liberia, where he fled after Mr Gbagbo's overthrow, said Ivorian police.

Marley was the leader of the mercenaries hired to help Gbagbo, who lost last year's presidential election and then used force to stay in office for five violent months.

Early in the conflict, Gbagbo recruited mercenaries from Liberia because he did not trust the regular army whose soldiers defected when elected leader Alassane Ouattara's forces advanced.

"The arrest of Bob Marley sends a strong signal, marking a first step towards justice," said Matt Wells, a researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "We credibly implicated him in leading massacres in which a total of more than 100 people were executed."