Bush Seeks International Assistance in Iraq

With U.S. casualties becoming a near daily occurrence in Iraq (search) and criticism mounting, President Bush said Monday that he wants other nations to play a greater role in the country's peacekeeping and reconstruction.

Nothing like re-writing facts to fit one's agenda.

Nothing like re-writing facts to fit one's agenda.

\ Absolutely. This was always the plan. There are already Danish, Italian, Polish, British, American and some others.

There, mortar fire hit the U.S. Embassy Monday, killing 60 people who had gathered outside the consulate seeking refuge.

??? Killing 60? I hadn't even heard of any injuries. I need to go find some other source to corroborate this.

As I thought:

Some people were killed in the direct hit on the embassy's commissary building, Fox News learned. The U.S. military said at least three people were injured.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting in Monrovia has killed at least 60 people, according to hospital and emergency workers.

I think we've discovered where Jayson Blair's working now. :-)

??? Killing 60?

A lot of info here.

Liberia fighting leaves at least 70 dead

By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS

The Associated Press - 7/21/2003, 1:10 p.m. ET

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Heavy fighting engulfed the Liberian capital Monday, killing at least 70 people as mortars pounded the city in an all-out battle between rebels and forces of President Charles Taylor.

During two hours of continuous mortar fire, one shell killed 25 Liberians when it hit an American diplomatic compound where at least 10,000 refugees have taken refuge, across the street from the sprawling U.S. Embassy complex overlooking the Atlantic shore.

After the blast, enraged Liberians lined up at least 18 bloodied, mangled bodies from the compound in the street outside the embassy. Some shouted, "We are going to die for nothing," as two embassy guards in camouflage watched from behind bulletproof glass.

It appeared to be the bloodiest single day of fighting in three rebel attempts to take the city in the last two months. In Washington, officials announced that some 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation.

A Marine contingent arrived at the embassy on Monday to protect the facility and evacuate some foreigners. "We're concerned about our people," President Bush told a press conference in Crawford, Texas.

But he indicated he had not yet decided the size of a U.S. force that might be sent to help a peacekeeping force in Liberia. "We continue to monitor the situation very closely," Bush said.

Monday's limited Marine deployment frustrated many Liberians, who have been pleading for a U.S. force to enforce an oft-violated June 17th cease-fire.

With thousands of Liberians outside the compound asking when troops would come to protect them, helicopters swooped in bringing the Marines, who unloaded wearing green camouflage, body armor and helmets. The copters then took off again carrying between 25 and 30 foreign aid workers and some foreign journalists.

Clutching bags and backpacks, the evacuees ran up the hill of the embassy compound through the pouring rain to the helicopter pad, as Marines and embassy officials yelled, "Go, Go."

During the day's mortar bombardment, a shell hit a house in one neighborhood, killing 18 people inside, emergency workers at the scene said. Another 27 Liberians were killed in other attacks Monday, hospital officials said.

One shell hit the commissary building inside the main U.S. Embassy compound, but no one was injured. An American journalist was wounded in Monrovia's port area, the scene of fierce fighting for several days.

Along with the 25 dead, two Liberian guards working for the American embassy were wounded when the shell hit the residence complex across the street. The complexes were hit in mid-June during the rebels' last push to take the capital and oust Taylor. In that attack, many were killed in the residence complex, which is packed with the tents of Liberians fleeing violence.

Clustered on street corners, Liberians listened on hand-held radios to news of the Marines being deployed to defend the U.S. Embassy.

"The coming of additional American troops is important," one man, Moses Smith, 32, said. "But what we need is not those just coming to mind American property, but those who will be deployed on the ground to give us the feeling that peace is really coming."

Liberians are weary after 14 years of bloody turmoil. Many say they won't be satisfied that stability is possible until U.S. peacekeepers land in the country, founded more than a century ago by freed American slaves.

Warlord-turned-president Taylor has pledged to resign and accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria — but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition.

President Bush has set Taylor's departure as a condition to sending U.S. troops.

West African nations are planning to send more than 1,500 soldiers to enforce the often-violated June 17 cease-fire. But with peacekeepers yet to arrive, Taylor has vowed to fight for Monrovia, his only remaining stronghold.

Rebels pounded the city with mortars and pushed deeper into the northern suburbs Sunday before being repelled by government forces into the port area. The fighting, which continued into the night, sent a new wave of terrified residents fleeing with bundles of possessions balanced on their heads. The casualty toll was not clear.

In Washington, the State Department called for an immediate cease-fire by all parties and a focus on continuing peace talks in Ghana aimed at setting up a unity government to oversee fresh elections.

Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the former Nigerian military ruler mediating peace negotiations in Ghana, also appealed for an end to the fighting.

Officials for the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy insisted they were only trying to pressure Taylor to step down.

"We're not trying to do a military takeover," LURD delegate Joe Wylie said in Ghana. "But we can help to speed things up. Since Taylor signed the cease-fire, he is running his mouth and amending his promises. We want to apply a little pressure on him. We want him to leave now."

By Sunday afternoon, French medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, had received one dead and about 90 injured civilians. A Liberian staffer also was killed when a mortar struck his home Saturday night.

The British aid group Merlin treated 30 more civilians, while the city's main John F. Kennedy hospital received more than 60 wounded, most of them soldiers. One soldier died, hospital officials said.

An International Committee of the Red Cross trauma unit in Monrovia said it has treated 100 seriously wounded patients, mostly civilians.

Taylor launched Liberian's last civil war in 1989, emerging in 1996 as the country's strongest warlord. He was elected president the following year, and now faces rebels who include former rivals from the earlier war.

A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted him on war crimes for supporting Sierra Leone's notoriously brutal rebels.

Yep, more detail, thanks. But still doesn't add up to 60 from the embassy. My point was that our wonderful author seems to be playing rather loose with the facts both here and in the opening para.