Rebels battled close to the heart of Liberia's capital yesterday as fighting left scores dead and drew calls for US intervention in a ruined African country founded by freed American slaves.
Only one bridge stood between the attackers and a feared bloodbath in central Monrovia, where thousands of terrified people have scrambled for refuge and are hemmed in by the killing on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.
PHOTO: AP
The showdown between President Charles Taylor and rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy is the culmination of a three-year bush war, but only the latest grisly chapter in nearly 14 years of violence.
It has wrecked allhopes of a negotiated end to the war less than a week after a ceasefire had raised them.
Letting loose rockets and mortars, the rebels advanced in two days through suburbs where hundreds were killed earlier this month. Defense Minister Daniel Chea said battle now raged on Bushrod Island -- within small arms range of the centre.
Among the dead were three Liberians killed when shells crashed into a US compound used as a storage area less than one kilometer from the American embassy.
The mission issued a statement harshly condemning the attack on Monrovia, and urging rebels to abide by international accords. It said scores had died as a result of recent shelling.
But there was no sign Washington would respond to pressure to take a leading role in ending the anarchy in a country founded by freed American slaves as a haven of liberty in the 19th century.
Britain's UN ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said members of the UN Security Council hoped the US would intervene, possibly at the head of a multinational force to bolster any ceasefire.
"At this point the US has no plans to deploy any peacekeeping forces but it continues to support West African efforts," said one US official, who asked not to be named.
The situation is complicated by the position of President Taylor, a US-educated former warlord who is no friend of the US and has been indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone by an international court.
Facing a desperate battle for survival and with no clear escape route, Taylor has vowed to fight on. The rebels have said they will not stop until they hold Monrovia.
Crushed between the fighting factions is a population of more than a million, swollen by hundreds of thousands of refugees.
"We are all in our house praying right now. We thought that the Americans could help us, but they are not good people at all," said Cynthia Smith in the city center.
However, military officials said late yesterday that forces loyal to Taylor have driven the rebels out of the port area and pushed them to about 10km from the city center.
The officials said that rebels had retreated to the area around St Paul's River Bridge on the city's outskirts.
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