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Rebels in Liberia Battle on Key Bridge

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Rebels shelled Liberia's refugee-crowded capital and fought for control of a key bridge Wednesday, despite announcing a cease-fire considered essential for deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to the West African nation.

The fighting focused on Stockton Bridge, government officials said. If rebels take the bridge, they could control northern suburbs and the road to Liberia's main airport, and encircle the city.

"This morning we're still under attack ... It's still raining round after round of mortars," Defense Minister Daniel Chea said Wednesday after a night of shelling and gunfire.

As for the rebels' announcement Tuesday of a cease-fire, Chea said, "I'm not impressed at all."

European diplomats say a cease-fire is essential for deployment of a promised West African peace force - particularly if Americans are to be persuaded to participate in military intervention for the nation founded by freed American slaves.

Three U.S. ships with 2,000 Marines and 2,500 sailors aboard were moving toward the Mediterranean Sea, where they were to await orders to head to Liberia.

President Bush has made any deployment of American troops conditional on the departure of President Charles Taylor, a former warlord indicted for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Taylor has pledged to accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria - but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition.

In an interview with The New York Times, Taylor said he would step aside "within 10 days" and hand over power to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yundueh Monorkomna. Taylor will make the formal announcement Saturday, the Times reported Wednesday.

During the past two months, Taylor repeatedly has announced and then amended plans to resign.

On Wednesday, Chea suggested Taylor would never go as long as fighting rages.

"The president has definitely agreed to go to Nigeria, and the president will definitely go to Nigeria," Chea told The Associated Press. "But he is not going to go under these circumstances."

Rebels derided Taylor's latest departure pledge.

"Taylor is just bluffing," rebel spokesman Kabineh Ja'neh said in Accra, Ghana, where government and rebel delegates met.

"You know how many times he has said this kind of thing? We'll make sure he leaves."

Tuesday's cease-fire was shaky from the start. Rebels traded machine-gun and grenade fire near three bridges connecting Monrovia's port to the northern suburbs and downtown - the last remaining Taylor stronghold.

Sporadic shelling also persisted, with one round striking a house across the street from the U.S. Embassy compound. Shrapnel bombarded a second house next door. Three people were killed and two others were wounded seriously near the embassy.

Many Liberians believe a peacekeeping force could have averted the carnage Monday - when mortars shook the capital in one of the bloodiest days of fighting in three years of civil war.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States had not decided whether to send troops, while the European Union's special regional envoy, Hans Dahlgren, told Swedish Radio, "One of the factors is whether there is really going to be a peace agreement to supervise."

Some Pentagon officials said Bush was inclined to send in a smaller contingent of perhaps several hundred Marines - enough to provide command and communications support for the West African force.

Oxfam said "the delay in sending peacekeeping troops to Liberia is costing lives," while the Rome-based World Food Program said thousands of people in temporary shelters are running out of food and water.

"As long as the fighting continues there is no way that we can get supplies to them," said Gregory Blamo, the agency's official in Monrovia.

Meanwhile, West African defense chiefs gathered in Dakar, Senegal, to finalize the force's composition and deployment schedule, Nigerian army spokesman Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu said. Foreign ministers also were there.

One option, he said, was to divert to Liberia some 700 to 1,000 Nigerian troops from Sierra Leone, where the soldiers have participated in a U.N. peacekeeping force.

Nigeria, Mali and Ghana are willing to contribute troops but need foreign financial backing, Nigerian presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said. The participants also want other countries - including South Africa, Morocco and the United States - to send soldiers.

"We don't have any timetable for when the U.S. might send troops. But diplomatic talks are going on by the hour and things can change rather quickly," Oyo said.

Chea urged West African leaders to send the troops. While West African authorities are "talking about dollars and cents and other logistics, the people continue to die," he said.

Hospital officials and aid groups counted more than 100 killed Monday, but the toll was believed to be much higher. Chea placed it at well over 600.

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