Haiti's conflict spread to the central city of Hinche as rebels and former soldiers killed at least three officers at a police station.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last night pleaded for help to stop the bloodshed.
Around 50 rebels descended on the station in Hinche, 70 miles north west of the capital Port-au-Prince. They killed three officers and freed prisoners from the jail before torching the station.
Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who led a paramilitary group known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH reportedly led the attack.
The attack was considered a serious blow and the first to the city of 50,000 people where corn, millet and beans are produced. The rebels now control most roads leading in and out of the Artibonite district, a rich agricultural area home to almost one million people.
"Blood has flowed in Hinche," Mr Aristide told reporters at a news conference late yesterday, saying he had asked for technical assistance from the Organisation of American States. "It may be that the police cannot cope with this kind of attack."
At least 56 people have died since the rebellion aimed at ousting Mr Aristide exploded February 5th in Gonaives, about 70 miles north west of Port-au-Prince. Rebels have driven police out of more than a dozen towns, though most of the country has been unaffected.
Mr Aristide refused to talk about strategies for halting the unrest or whether he would ask for military assistance. But he did say the government would use peaceful means to quell the uprising that has prevented food, fuel and medical shipments.
Discontent has grown in this Caribbean country of eight million people since Mr Aristide's party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000 and international donors froze millions of dollars.
AP