Pro-Gbagbo Forces Break up Protests in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Photo Courtesy United Nations)

The report echoes earlier accounts of hundreds of people massacred by pro-Ouattara forces over the past months.

The violence on both sides has caused over 1 million people to flee the country as refugees.

The United Nations -- with support of the French government -- has recently begun bombarding strongholds of Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to cede power to Ouattara sparked the mass violence in the country.  But that intervention has threatened to create an oversimplified portrait of "good guy vs. bad guy," according to some observers.

Those observers, including Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and co-founder of Global Voices, say that such framing can gloss over atrocities being committed on both sides.

"The challenge with the situation in Ivory Coast is that neither side has clean hands," said Zuckerman in an interview with Al Jazeera. "Forces working for both have committed atrocities and, unfortunately, it's very hard to see how any resolution to the conflict will avoid further bloodshed, as both sides seek to settle scores."

Zuckerman worries that consumers of media reports on the UN-sanctioned assault on Gbagbo strongholds will distort the reality on the ground.

"The narrative of Gbagbo as the bad guy who won't give up and Ouattara as the good guy with international backing and an electoral victory isn't terribly far off base" continued Zuckerman. "It does, however, oversimplify and makes it harder to see crimes committed by Ouattara's forces with the same clarity as we see those committed by Gbagbo's."

Meanwhile, French and United Nations helicopters continued launching attacks against Gbagbo forces on Monday.

This amateur video reportedly shows French missiles hitting the presidential palace in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast.

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Reach Executive Producer Mary Slosson here.  Follow her on Twitter @maryslosson.