Liberia's army claimed rebels had overrun two towns in a new push toward the capital, and aid workers and civilians reported panicked streams of refugees in flight Tuesday from the alleged advance.
The reported offensive comes despite a week-old peace deal meant to end 14 years of conflict in the country, and would put the rebels within 100km of the capital from the north.
Rather than reopening any siege on Monrovia, it appeared insurgents might be trying to rout government forces from the north, securing territory ahead of an African peace force's pending deployment into the interior.
While Monrovia has calmed since West African-led forces deployed in the capital nearly four weeks ago, skirmishes have persisted in the country's center, north and southeast.
In Monrovia, General Benjamin Yeaten claimed rebels had taken the towns of Gbatala and Bong Mines, on a main, but dilapidated, road through the countryside.
"We do not understand why these attacks are still going on but we are left with no options but to be on the offensive" and appeal to peacekeepers, Yeaten said.
Humanitarian workers returning to Monrovia from an early venture into the unsecured north reported large movements of people from the direction of the two towns.
"People have bundles on their heads, but don't know where it's safe to go," said James Kerkula, a 29-year-old peddler, newly returned from north of Monrovia.
He described the now routine sight of refugees laden for flight, with mattresses and other goods bundled on their heads.
"The atmosphere in the entire region is confused -- the rebels are in one town today, and in another the next day," Kerkula said.
Rebel officials referred questions about fighting to their chairman, Sekou Conneh, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Liberia's interior remains largely a no-go zone for West African peacekeepers and aid groups alike, two weeks after warlord-president Charles Taylor resigned office and fled into exile.
Rebels lifted a bloody siege of the capital upon Taylor's departure. On Aug. 18, all sides signed a power-sharing deal meant to end civil war and rebellion under Taylor.
Since 1989, the conflicts have killed more than 150,000 people, and damaged virtually every city and town in once prosperous Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves.
Despite the peace deal, both sides have reported continuing clashes.
It is impossible to independently confirm the accounts or to determine the extent of any fighting.
Some of the alleged offensives are believed aimed at securing territory before peacekeepers move in, or simply carried out for looting.
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