Mortar barrages tore apart Liberia's capital as rebels launched the bloodiest fighting to date against government forces, as US Marines at an American embassy compound evacuated foreign aid workers and journalists in helicopters.
Defense Minister Daniel Chea claimed yesterday the death toll was well over 600 people, but there was no way to independently confirm the figure. Aid groups and hospitals have put the number of dead above 90, but say they expect the number to rise.
PHOTO: AFP
In a phone interview on Monday, embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor repeated his call for a promised West African peacekeeping force to arrive quickly to "bring some sanity" to Liberia, which is torn by a decade of strife.
PHOTO: AP
But Taylor said the best way to ensure stability was through US troops on the ground, in addition to the Marines guarding the US Embassy in his nation, which was founded by freed American slaves more than a century ago.
"An American contingent would be excellent," he said.
A storm of mortars rocked residential neighborhoods along with two US Embassy compounds in the rebels' third attempt to take Monrovia -- Taylor's last stronghold. An American journalist was among the injured.
American helicopters landed in the embassy compound in driving rain Monday, dropping off about half of a 41-member Marine security team. The troops evacuated about 23 foreign humanitarian workers and journalists.
Clutching bags and backpacks, the evacuees ran to the aircraft as Marines and embassy officials shouted: "Go! Go!" Among them were the UN's last seven foreign staffers, who had returned to Monrovia just two weeks earlier during a lull in fighting.
US officials announced that 4,500 more American service members have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to prepare for an evacuation of Americans on peacekeeping or some other mission if necessary.
"We're concerned about our people," US President George W. Bush said in Crawford, Texas. He indicated he had not yet decided the size of a US force that might be sent to help a promised West African peacekeeping mission in Liberia.
The US State Department criticized the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy for "reckless and indiscriminate shooting" and appealed to neighboring African countries to guard against weapons going to Liberia.
Joe Wylie, a rebel delegate at peace talks in Ghana, said the government was also firing shells.
The rebels were "not responsible for shooting mortars into the embassy," Wylie said. "We have our backs to the US Embassy. ... They [government forces] were shooting at us."
During 2 1/2 hours of sustained mortar fire, a shell slammed into a US Embassy residential compound where some 10,000 terrified Liberians had taken refuge, killing 25 people, aid workers said. Many more were wounded, including two Liberian embassy guards.
Some 65 others were killed in other strikes.
Yesterday, fighting was focused in the port area. Chea said rebels made another attempt to take control of two bridges leading from the port to the downtown area, but that government troops held them off.
Residents, meanwhile, reported a sleepless night of intense looting by fighters.
Early yesterday there was a lull in fighting although sporadic gunfire continued. People took the opportunity to forage for food and water.
After Monday's blasts, enraged Liberians dragged bodies from the residential compound and lined them up in front of the embassy, next to a wall emblazoned with the American seal. The group demanded to know why Washington has not sent troops to Liberia.
"We're dying here," screamed some in the crowd.
One man held up a hastily scrawled sign: "Today G. Bush kill Liberia people."
More than 360 people were injured -- some hauled to the hospital in wheelbarrows, others screaming in pain. Monday appeared to be the bloodiest in two months of fighting by rebels attempting to seize the capital.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once again urged Washington and West African states to commit troops.
"I think we can really salvage the situation if troops were to be deployed urgently and promptly," he said.
Taylor has pledged to resign and accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria -- but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the