Liberian rebels order ceasefire in bloody battle for capital

LIBERIAN rebels engaged in an all-out battle for the country’s war-torn capital said yesterday they have ordered their troops to stop fighting.

"Our troops are being told to cease fire," said Charles Benny, an official with the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, currently in nearby Ghana for peace talks.

The call to stop fighting comes the day after a thunderous barrage of shells rained down on the city in the bloodiest fighting in two months.

Mr Benny said he welcomed the announcement that Nigerian forces were ready to help lead a West African peacekeeping force in Liberia.

The death toll from Monday's fighting in the Liberian capital of Monrovia is well over 600, according to Defence Minister Daniel Chea. There was no way to independently confirm the figure and aid groups and hospitals have put the number of dead above 90, but say they expect the number to rise.

Mr Chea said yesterday's fighting was focused in the port area of Monrovia. The rebels made another attempt to take control of two bridges leading from the port to the downtown area, but soldiers held them off.

Desperate Liberians foraged for food and water during a lull in fighting downtown yesterday, while serious fighting raged in the port area as the battle for the country's war-ravaged capital showed no sign of abating.

Yesterday's clashes followed some of the bloodiest fighting since rebels launched their third assault on Monrovia in the past two months.

Covered by blue and grey plastic, bodies lay in the rain yesterday outside the US Embassy compound in Monrovia, dragged there by Liberians furious that US forces have not come to their rescue. After a shell hit the embassy Monday, US Marines evacuated foreigners and aid workers.

On Monday, mortar barrages tore apart Liberia's capital, and Marines at a US Embassy compound evacuated foreign aid workers and journalists in helicopters.

In a phone interview on Monday, embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor repeated his call for a promised West African peacekeeping force to arrive quickly to "bring some sanity" to the nation founded by freed American slaves.

But Mr Taylor said the best way to ensure stability was through US troops on the ground, in addition to the Marines guarding the US Embassy. "An American contingent would be excellent," he said.

US officials announced that 4,500 more US sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia, if needed for an evacuation of Americans, peacekeeping or some other mission.

"We're concerned about our people," President George W Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He indicated he had not yet decided the size of a US force that might be sent to help a promised West African peacekeeping mission in Liberia.

The State Department criticised the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy for "reckless and indiscriminate shooting" and appealed to neighbouring African countries to guard against weapons going to Liberia.

Joe Wylie, a rebel delegate at peace talks in Ghana, said the government was also firing shells.

The rebels were "not responsible for shooting mortars into the embassy", Wylie said. "We have our backs to the US Embassy.... They (government forces) were shooting at us."

During two-and-a-half hours of sustained mortar fire on Monday, a shell slammed into a US Embassy residential compound where some 10,000 terrified Liberians had taken refuge, killing 25 people, aid workers said. Many more were wounded, including two Liberian embassy guards.

Enraged Liberians dragged bodies from the residential compound and lined them up in front of the embassy, next to a wall emblazoned with the American seal. The group demanded to know why Washington has not sent troops to end more than a decade of strife in the West African nation.

"We're dying here," screamed some in the crowd, as two American servicemen in camouflage watched from behind bulletproof glass. One man held up a hastily scrawled sign: "Today G. Bush kill Liberia people."

More than 360 people were injured some hauled to the hospital in wheelbarrows, others screaming in pain.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once again urged Washington and West African states to commit troops.

"I think we can really salvage the situation if troops were to be deployed urgently and promptly," he said.

Taylor has pledged to resign and accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition. But in his interview, he also hinted he might make other demands of Mr Bush before agreeing to step down.

"I have written him a letter outlining to him certain things that are necessary for me to step down and certain things that are necessary for me to leave the country," said Taylor, without elaborating.

Mr Bush has said any deployment of US troops is conditional on the departure of Taylor, a former warlord indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone, where he supported a brutal rebel movement. Taylor launched Liberia's last civil war in 1989, emerging in 1996 as the strongest warlord. He was elected president the following year.