4,500 US forces move closer to Liberia

SOME 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia after at least 70 people were killed when heavy fighting engulfed the capital Monrovia yesterday.

The casualties occurred as mortars pounded the city in an all-out battle between rebels and the forces of President Charles Taylor.

Twenty-five people were killed at an American diplomatic compound situated directly across the street from the US embassy, aid workers said.

The two hours of non-stop mortar barrage came as helicopters swooped in bringing 41 US marines to secure the American Embassy. The aircraft dropped off Marines in green camouflage, body armour and helmets and took off carrying between 25 and 30 foreign aid workers and some foreign journalists.

In another neighbourhood, a shell hit a house, killing 18 people inside, emergency workers at the scene said.

Another 27 Liberians were killed in other attacks yesterday, hospital officials said.

At least 10,000 people had taken refuge in the US diplomatic compound and enraged Liberians lined up 18 bloodied, mangled bodies pulled from the carnage and dumped them in front of the embassy.

It appeared to be the bloodiest single day of fighting in three rebel attempts to take the city in the last two months.

Liberians have pleaded with the United States to send peacekeepers to enforce an oft-violated June 17 ceasefire, and yesterday’s limited deployment to protect the embassy frustrated many.

President George W Bush has set Taylor’s departure as a condition to sending US troops.

West African nations are planning to send more than 1,500 soldiers to enforce the ceasefire. However, with peacekeepers yet to arrive, Taylor has vowed to fight for Monrovia, his only remaining stronghold.

In Washington, the State Department called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties and a focus on continuing peace talks in Ghana which are aimed at setting up a unity government to oversee fresh elections.

Officials of the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy insisted that they were only trying to pressure Taylor to step down. “We’re not trying to do a military takeover,” said LURD leader Joe Wylie.

“But we can help to speed things up. Since Taylor signed the ceasefire, he is running his mouth and amending his promises. We want to apply a little pressure on him. We want him to leave now.”

Taylor launched Liberia’s last civil war in 1989, emerging in 1996 as the country’s strongest warlord. He was elected president the following year, and now faces rebels who include former rivals from the earlier war.

A United Nations-backed tribunal has indicted Taylor on war crimes for supporting Sierra Leone’s notoriously brutal rebels.