PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti- Up to a dozen people were killed in raids by police on armed gangs in slum areas of the Haitian capital blamed for a recent wave of violence, eyewitnesses said.

Morgue workers said on Friday they had received five bodies after police swooped in a hunt for gangs in shantytowns where support for ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains strong.

Slum residents said at least 12 people had been killed on Thursday, while a Reuters correspondent saw six bodies, including those of two women.

"There was a shootout between hooded police in black uniforms and armed gangs. Those two people who were passing by got killed," said a resident of the Sans Fil area bordering the lawless slum of Bel-Air, pointing to two corpses.

It was unclear who was responsible for most of the killings, which capped 10 weeks of escalating tensions between the interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, backed by police, and supporters of Aristide.

Since early September, at least 200 people have died, and dozens have been arrested in raids on Port-au-Prince's gritty slums by police with support from a Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping force.

The government, appointed after Aristide was forced to flee on Feb. 29 amid an armed revolt and U.S. and French pressure to quit, blames his Lavalas Family party for fomenting violence.

Lavalas blames the government for targeting its members.

The violence threatens the success of the U.N. mission to help the poorest country in the Americas emerge from years of political turmoil and recover from February's bloody revolt.

While police and gangs clashed in the slums, the U.N. force dealt with another source of tension -- disbanded soldiers who led the revolt against Aristide and who are now demanding the reestablishment of the army and 10 years of back pay.

Brazilian and Sri Lankan U.N. forces in armored vehicles prevented the former soldiers from staging a parade on Thursday after they turned up with semi-automatic rifles.

The soldiers, once hailed by Prime Minster Latortue as freedom fighters, branded government officials as "traitors."

"Latortue has sold the country to foreigners. He prefers foreign military to the Haitian army that created this nation," said one of their leaders, Remissainthe Ravix. "We will never hand over our weapons; we'd rather die with them."