US sends troops to Ivory Coast (THE OTHER WAR ALERT)

Washington sent troops to the Ivory Coast last night to help in the rescue of scores of American teenagers at a missionary school caught up in vicious fighting.

Students cowered on the ground as heavy machine gun fire flew overhead in exchanges that lasted all day between troops loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo and well-armed rebels.

"We are in a state of emergency here and I am sorry but I cannot take a call at this moment," a young and very scared female voice told The Telegraph last night by telephone. Before the line went dead, gunfire could be heard in the distance.

Armed rebels had earlier entered the campus of the International Christian Academy in the mainly Muslim town of Bouake. The Pentagon committed the 200 special forces troops after an urgent request for assistance from Arlene Render, the US ambassador to the Ivory Coast.

There are about 170 American students at the school and another dozen US teachers and staff. The US forces, drawn mainly from bases in Europe, flew to the region last night to join a specialist State Department evacuation team already there.

They will work alongside a French expeditionary force of about 400 men in armoured vehicles and protected by light tanks that is camped about 60 miles from Bouake.

Fighting has claimed about 300 lives so far in the Ivory Coast after violent clashes between loyalist troops and former soldiers.

The deployment is America's largest to Africa since its doomed mission to Somalia in support of United Nations humanitarian relief efforts.

Cote d'Ivore used to be one of the more stable regimes in Africa - unfortunately it's now become a basket case. Democratic habits rather than taking up the gun are not ingrained on the continent.

Best of luck to the American troops - however I sincerely doubt President Bush would allow another "Blackhawk Down".

Regards, Ivan

Nope...no US troops in Africa. Africa has to go it alone. They will fall into darkness, but they have to work this out and crawl their way back.

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (AP) _ French troops arrived Wednesday at a mission school in central Ivory Coast where 200 foreigners, including 100 American children, have been trapped by the West African nation's worst-ever uprising. ``I can confirm French troops have arrived on the campus,'' Neil Gilliland of the Nashville, Tenn.-based Free Will Baptist Foreign Missions, which has links to the school, said by telephone.

Ranging in age from 5- to 18 years old, children at the International Christian Academy have been pinned down in the rebel-held city of Bouake since a Thursday coup attempt, with rebels at one time breaching the campus. About 200 foreigners in all live at the school, the majority of them American. ``They are very happy,'' Gilliland said of students and staff at the arrival of the French soldiers.

The well-armed French forces secured the campus, school security officer Mike Cousineau told the Nashville base. French forces in Ivory Coast, a former French colony, had deployed hundreds of troops, trucks, and helicopters in the central capital, Yamoussoukro, to rescue Westerners from Bouake if needed. Missionaries have sent up increasingly fervent calls for help since Monday night when rebels breached the walls of the school and fired from its grounds. No students or staff have been reported injured.

French troop's rescue came as about 200 U.S. troops, including special operation forces, landed in neighboring Ghana overnight _ ready to move in to safeguard Ivory Coast's Americans. Reaching the school meant moving through the ranks of rebels still apparently in control of the city. Ivory Coast has sworn to retake Bouake and one other city, Korhogo, in the hands of rebels since Thursday's failed coup. At least 270 people died in the uprising's first days alone. None are known to have been Westerners.

AP-ES-09-25-02 0743EDT

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.