American Marines leave Liberia

US military planes and helicopters carried the last few American ground forces out of war-ruined Liberia – leaving Liberians thankful for their help, but dismayed at their silent withdrawal.

The US Marines’ departure coincides with the transfer of peacekeeping responsibility from a 3,000-plus West African force to a UN force of up to 15,000.

Roughly 30 members of a US military liaison team flew out of Liberia’s main airport today, ending their work with a West African-led peace mission.

Their ship, the USS Iwo Jima, was the last of three US warships that had been deployed in early August off Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, where fighting killed more than 1,000 civilians in June and July as rebels laid siege to the city.

Although never a strong presence on the ground, the US military presence offshore helped drive warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor into exile, clearing the way for a power-sharing deal between his government and rebels after 14 years of devastating conflict.

More than 100 heavily armed US Marines went ashore in Liberia on August 14, prodded by international appeals to intervene as Liberia’s three-year civil war pressed upon the capital.

The rebels – battling since 1997 against Taylor, who ceded power to his vice president and went into exile on August 11 – are to be included in a power-sharing government arranged under an August peace deal.