Posted on 08/02/2003 10:58:51 PM PDT by HAL9000
MONROVIA, Aug 3 (AFP) - The soldiers approach at a run, supporting a wounded comrade. Bullets whistle around them, smash into the ground, explode on the guard rail of the bridge. The men send off a rapid volley of covering fire.
They get the wounded man into the back of a jeep and there he dies in the arms of a comrade who bellows his grief and anger. An officer arrives, revolver in his hand.
"You are fighting for Charles Taylor; don't cry like a woman, you know why you are in battle. Back to the front! Back to the front!"
And the soldier jumps from the jeep and rejoins a squad which is making its way back to the Old Bridge. In the distance the booming echoes of the explosions of RPG-7 rocket propelled grenades can be heard. A vehicle equipped with an anti-aircraft machine-gun covers the advance of the infantry.
It is some hours now since forces loyal to President Charles Taylor of Liberia began a major offensive against the three bridges leading into the centre of Monrovia, under attack for two weeks by rebels belonging to LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy).
It began at 10.30 am Saturday with a bombardment of rebel positions at Via Town and Clara Town, the two districts situated just the other side of the Old Bridge and Gabriel Johnson Tucker Bridge, those closest to the centre, where Taylor's power base is situated.
Many houses in this area, which is close to the city's port, in rebel hands since July 17, are burning.
And at the same time fighting resumes at the bridge that spans the Stockton Creek, northeast of Monrovia.
After the bombardment, the advance. Taylor's government troops move on to Old Bridge and Johnson Tucker Bridge. Heavy machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks hammer the fortified rebel positions set up in houses along the banks of the Saint-Paul river.
A rocket-propelled grenade is fired and explodes in a house covered with metal sheeting where LURD forces have established a machine gun position making it impossible to cross the Old Bridge.
Government troops take advantage of the confusion in the rebel ranks to move forward, cross the bridge and set up positions in bushes either side of the road, which is carpeted with spent ammunition.
They have achieved their first objective: to take up position in Via Town and move on Clara Town. Their aim is to retake the port of Monrovia.
From a distance the movements of the rebels can be seen as they move across the main artery of the port. In a fine rain vehicles cross the road, their headlights blazing. Soldiers form up and move off towards the government troops.
On the government side of the bridge the troops are tired. Their faces are drawn, some have received slight wounds: they wait. Officers arrive, shouting, trying to get them back into action. Groups of soldiers return from the front, several wounded.
A man carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle, its bayonet flashing in the sun, pushes the troops towards the bridge, threatening them with his weapon, firing at the ground in the direction of the most sluggish.
A new group is ready and moves off to the attack, after a few minutes spent smoking "lion's food" -- cannabis distributed by officers just before the assault.
On the Johnson Tucker Bridge, a jeep and its heavy machine gun start to advance again, while two mortar rounds explode in the water either side of the bridge. On the Old Bridge, Taylor's men are again advancing.
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