War-weary Liberians rejoice as peace troops arrive

THE vanguard of a West African force aiming at stopping Liberia’s brutal civil war landed yesterday at an airport on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

Ecstatic locals poured onto the runway by the hundreds, and hoisted a commander to their shoulders, chanting "We want peace!"

Ominously, gunfire could still be heard from the streets of the beleaguered capital just a few miles away.