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Warlord
MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- Amid a storm of mortar shells and small-arms fire, a Marine anti-terrorist team arrived Monday at the U.S. Embassy in Liberia's capital to strengthen security as a battle raged between rebel forces and government troops.
Two mortar shells slammed into the U.S. Embassy complex in Monrovia. Rebels are moving on the capital to force President Charles Taylor to step down and leave the country.
Two Liberian policemen were wounded when a mortar round hit a building that is part of the embassy complex but outside embassy walls, embassy sources said. The extent of their injuries was unknown.
A second mortar shell hit the embassy's commissary, causing no injuries, the sources said.
Small-arms fire also erupted outside the compound, while those inside said they could see mortar rounds landing in the sea some 165 feet away.
Embassy officials ushered journalists, humanitarian workers and embassy staff into a basement room for safety.
Officials also said the JFK Hospital was being shelled, and patients there -- including Patrick Robert, a photojournalist on assignment for Time magazine who was shot Saturday -- had been moved to an inner compound considered safer.
Additionally, Newsweek's Monrovia bureau chief was hurt while driving to the Hotel Mamba Point, where other journalists were staying. His status was also unknown.
Twenty-three Americans -- 19 civilians and four aid workers -- were evacuated Monday by helicopters that brought in 21 members of the Fleet Anti-terrorist Security Team from Sierra Leone, military sources said. However, Ambassador John Blaney has not ordered an evacuation, embassy sources said.
President Bush said he was monitoring the situation very closely.
"We're concerned about our people in Liberia," Bush said after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch.
The United Nations said Monday it had pulled out its remaining seven aid workers with the help of the U.S. military.
Twenty more members of the Marine team are expected to arrive later Monday. Fifteen Marines came to the embassy earlier this month.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the international community -- including the United States -- to decide "urgently and promptly" to send more troops.
"Liberia today is poised between hope and disaster," he said, adding that the Liberians fighting in Monrovia must "understand they will be held accountable for any humanitarian disaster the fighting causes in Monrovia."
Some 2,000 Marines on board the three-ship task force led by the USS Iwo Jima are moving to the Mediterranean from the Horn of Africa, Pentagon sources said. They do not have direct orders to go to Liberia but may be sent offshore.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been briefed on options for Liberia, and officials said the focus is on providing U.S. military support for West African peacekeepers.
The intense fighting has spread panic across Monrovia -- residents race through the streets, hoping to find safety from gunfire.
The international humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres said Monday it was treating nearly 80 severely wounded civilians at two makeshift hospitals in Monrovia. A staffer was killed Sunday, the agency said, when a mortar slammed into his home.
"Shooting and shelling close to our hospitals is making it nearly impossible for us to treat our patients safely," said Alain Kassa, the agency's head of mission in Monrovia.
"[Sunday], a bullet landed in the middle of our hospital's pediatric ward even as war wounded civilians continued to arrive. [On Monday], we fear the fighting in the streets is so intense that the wounded cannot be transported to the hospital for treatment."
Peace talks in the Liberian conflict have been taking place in Accra, Ghana, where a cease-fire was signed June 17. But the rebels launched another assault on the capital when Taylor, who agreed to step down as part of the agreement, refused to leave the country immediately.
The embattled president has promised to fight on, insisting he won't leave the country before international peacekeepers arrive.
Sharpton meets with groups
U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Al Sharpton met Sunday in Ghana with Taylor representatives and members of the main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.
"We hope to appeal to all sides to try and have some type of truce or cease-fire," Sharpton said. "We are not on either side. We are on the side of getting help for the children -- medical care as well for those that have been displaced."
Sharpton, a New York civil rights activist, said his meetings with the rebel group would continue Monday morning. Afterward, he said he hopes to go to Monrovia and continue discussions there, possibly with Taylor.
The United States is "deeply concerned" about the latest round of cease-fire violations, the U.S. State Department said Sunday. It urged all sides to cease military activity and focus on the peace talks.
Taylor's forces vowed Monday to battle to the death and recapture lost ground as rebels advanced rapidly through the streets. Government forces said they controlled the road to the capital's airport.
"It may be the last battle for them. It may be the last battle for us," army chief of staff Gen. Benjamin Yeaten told Reuters. "I myself have decided to involve myself in the battle to defend this sovereign country and my own life. Nobody retreats, and nobody surrenders. This is a battle for survival."
After Taylor promised to leave office in June, the rebels signed a cease-fire aimed at ending their 3-year-old uprising, the latest episode in 14 years of almost continuous civil war that has seen an estimated 250,000 people killed. Fighting renewed when Taylor would not set a date for his departure.
On July 6, Taylor accepted an offer of asylum from Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who said he would shield him from war crimes charges -- but only if Taylor remained out of Liberian politics. President Bush has called on Taylor to step aside immediately.
The United States has long ties to Liberia, which was settled by freed American slaves in 1822.
Bush has promised to support the 1,500 U.N. peacekeepers that the Economic Community of West African States said it intends to send to Liberia, but so far he has not decided whether that support would involve U.S. troops.
CNN
Two mortar shells slammed into the U.S. Embassy complex in Monrovia. Rebels are moving on the capital to force President Charles Taylor to step down and leave the country.
Two Liberian policemen were wounded when a mortar round hit a building that is part of the embassy complex but outside embassy walls, embassy sources said. The extent of their injuries was unknown.
A second mortar shell hit the embassy's commissary, causing no injuries, the sources said.
Small-arms fire also erupted outside the compound, while those inside said they could see mortar rounds landing in the sea some 165 feet away.
Embassy officials ushered journalists, humanitarian workers and embassy staff into a basement room for safety.
Officials also said the JFK Hospital was being shelled, and patients there -- including Patrick Robert, a photojournalist on assignment for Time magazine who was shot Saturday -- had been moved to an inner compound considered safer.
Additionally, Newsweek's Monrovia bureau chief was hurt while driving to the Hotel Mamba Point, where other journalists were staying. His status was also unknown.
Twenty-three Americans -- 19 civilians and four aid workers -- were evacuated Monday by helicopters that brought in 21 members of the Fleet Anti-terrorist Security Team from Sierra Leone, military sources said. However, Ambassador John Blaney has not ordered an evacuation, embassy sources said.
President Bush said he was monitoring the situation very closely.
"We're concerned about our people in Liberia," Bush said after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch.
The United Nations said Monday it had pulled out its remaining seven aid workers with the help of the U.S. military.
Twenty more members of the Marine team are expected to arrive later Monday. Fifteen Marines came to the embassy earlier this month.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the international community -- including the United States -- to decide "urgently and promptly" to send more troops.
"Liberia today is poised between hope and disaster," he said, adding that the Liberians fighting in Monrovia must "understand they will be held accountable for any humanitarian disaster the fighting causes in Monrovia."
Some 2,000 Marines on board the three-ship task force led by the USS Iwo Jima are moving to the Mediterranean from the Horn of Africa, Pentagon sources said. They do not have direct orders to go to Liberia but may be sent offshore.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been briefed on options for Liberia, and officials said the focus is on providing U.S. military support for West African peacekeepers.
The intense fighting has spread panic across Monrovia -- residents race through the streets, hoping to find safety from gunfire.
The international humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres said Monday it was treating nearly 80 severely wounded civilians at two makeshift hospitals in Monrovia. A staffer was killed Sunday, the agency said, when a mortar slammed into his home.
"Shooting and shelling close to our hospitals is making it nearly impossible for us to treat our patients safely," said Alain Kassa, the agency's head of mission in Monrovia.
"[Sunday], a bullet landed in the middle of our hospital's pediatric ward even as war wounded civilians continued to arrive. [On Monday], we fear the fighting in the streets is so intense that the wounded cannot be transported to the hospital for treatment."
Peace talks in the Liberian conflict have been taking place in Accra, Ghana, where a cease-fire was signed June 17. But the rebels launched another assault on the capital when Taylor, who agreed to step down as part of the agreement, refused to leave the country immediately.
The embattled president has promised to fight on, insisting he won't leave the country before international peacekeepers arrive.
Sharpton meets with groups
U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Al Sharpton met Sunday in Ghana with Taylor representatives and members of the main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.
"We hope to appeal to all sides to try and have some type of truce or cease-fire," Sharpton said. "We are not on either side. We are on the side of getting help for the children -- medical care as well for those that have been displaced."
Sharpton, a New York civil rights activist, said his meetings with the rebel group would continue Monday morning. Afterward, he said he hopes to go to Monrovia and continue discussions there, possibly with Taylor.
The United States is "deeply concerned" about the latest round of cease-fire violations, the U.S. State Department said Sunday. It urged all sides to cease military activity and focus on the peace talks.
Taylor's forces vowed Monday to battle to the death and recapture lost ground as rebels advanced rapidly through the streets. Government forces said they controlled the road to the capital's airport.
"It may be the last battle for them. It may be the last battle for us," army chief of staff Gen. Benjamin Yeaten told Reuters. "I myself have decided to involve myself in the battle to defend this sovereign country and my own life. Nobody retreats, and nobody surrenders. This is a battle for survival."
After Taylor promised to leave office in June, the rebels signed a cease-fire aimed at ending their 3-year-old uprising, the latest episode in 14 years of almost continuous civil war that has seen an estimated 250,000 people killed. Fighting renewed when Taylor would not set a date for his departure.
On July 6, Taylor accepted an offer of asylum from Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who said he would shield him from war crimes charges -- but only if Taylor remained out of Liberian politics. President Bush has called on Taylor to step aside immediately.
The United States has long ties to Liberia, which was settled by freed American slaves in 1822.
Bush has promised to support the 1,500 U.N. peacekeepers that the Economic Community of West African States said it intends to send to Liberia, but so far he has not decided whether that support would involve U.S. troops.
CNN
More glory to the Marine Corp
