Posted on 07/21/2003 6:00:23 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Fighting surged back to the heart of Liberia's capital on Monday, stray bullets zipping into districts where thousands have sought shelter, as U.S. Marines flew to reinforce the U.S. embassy.
Residents said fighting between rebels and government forces was raging on the far side of bridges that stand on the threshold of the city center, hours after Liberian government forces vowed to fight to the death.
"Nobody retreats and nobody surrenders. This is a battle for survival," said army chief of staff General Benjamin D. Yeaten.
Children, keeping their heads as low as they could to dodge the bullets, ran with plastic buckets to the few sources of water to carry back to anxious families. Blood poured from the face of one boy who got hit.
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the rebel force fighting to overthrow Taylor for more than three years, battled their way to the key bridges after their third assault on the capital in two months.
"Now the fighting is spreading and (civilians) are fleeing basically nowhere. There is no shelter, no food, no water," said Muktar Farah of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"If fighting continues for two days this will be a humanitarian catastrophe."
The U.S. military said it had sent 41 Marines to reinforce security at the embassy and prepare to possibly evacuate U.S. citizens as the fighting intensified. The new arrivals will bring the number of U.S. troops in Liberia to about 70.
Dozens have been wounded in the latest violence and at least five people were killed on Sunday when one of a hail of mortar bombs landed among terrified residents a few hundred meters (yards) from the U.S. embassy.
HOPES FOR PEACEKEEPERS
In the battered city, people hope West African countries will send peacekeepers as soon as possible to try to end violence that has lasted on and off for 14 years.
Two failed rebel attacks in June left hundreds dead and intensified pressure on the United States to help a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.
Taylor has promised to step down once foreign troops arrive, but President Bush has said he would send a small force only after the former warlord, wanted by an international war crimes court in Sierra Leone, leaves the country.
West African countries are stepping up talks this week on sending their promised peacekeeping force. Chiefs of staff are due to meet in Senegal's capital Dakar on Monday, while foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday, a regional official said.
Regional leaders had hoped to get troops in by July 20, but diplomats said neither funding nor logistics had been in place.
In Ghana, venue of talks between rebels and government that were meant to agree a transitional government to replace Taylor's, visiting U.S. civil rights leader Al Sharpton said he planned to head to Monrovia on a humanitarian mission on Monday.
The chief mediator at the Ghana talks, Abdulsalami Abubakar, issued a statement calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
Two rebel factions hold about two-thirds of the broken country. They have their roots in the tribal hatreds inflamed by a civil war in the 1990s that left at least 200,000 dead.
While few Liberians will be unhappy to see Taylor go if it means an end to the war, there is little support for rebels who are seen as prolonging the misery.
The insurgents struck as far as the two bridges that lead to the heart of Monrovia on Sunday and fought their way up the road that cuts around the back of the swampy seaside city toward Taylor's home and the main airport road.
For the "I want my slavery reparations" crowd, it must be pointed out that being able to live in America rather than in an African country such as Liberia is the reparations that they now enjoy because of the enslavement of the ancestors.
Time for overwhelming force to destroy large concentrations of rebel (or govt.) forces.
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