Liberian Rebels Capture Key Bridge in Push

Reuters | July 18, 2003

[HAL9000]

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberian rebels captured a key bridge Friday, smashing through one of the last main lines of defense before the capital Monrovia and sparking fears of another bloody battle in the city, an army commander said.

Po River bridge is just eight miles from the outskirts of the city where hundreds of people were killed last month in two failed assaults by the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

"The rebels are there. They came very heavily armed," chief of army staff Benjamin Yeaten told Reuters by phone after leaving the battlefront. "It looks like they are trying to attack Monrovia."

In the coastal capital, people slammed shutters down on shops and scrambled to get home. As news of the rebel advance spread, fuel prices doubled.

The residents of Monrovia remember all too well the fierce fighting that ravaged the city and left bodies strewn on the pot-holed streets during a civil war in the 1990s.

Last month, the city was battered again as rebels lobbed mortars into the suburbs and clashed with troops loyal to President Charles Taylor around the strategic port. Around 700 civilians were killed.

The latest rebel push will cast a cloud on plans by West African countries to deploy an initial peacekeeping force of up to 1,500 troops to separate the warring parties.

Regional leaders want to end 14 years of almost non-stop war that have destroyed a once well-off country, spawned a generation of ruthless drugged-up killers and spread chaos to neighboring countries.

PLEAS FOR PEACEKEEPERS

LURD is seeking to oust Taylor, a former warlord who has been indicted for war crimes by an international court. LURD and a smaller rebel faction control two-thirds of Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago.

In a statement issued before the bridge fell Friday, LURD blamed Taylor's troops for attacking their positions first -- a charge the government has also leveled at them in recent days.

"We are now informing the Liberian people and the international community that should such unprovoked attacks continue, we will have no recourse but to retaliate with all-out force to overrun Monrovia," the statement said.

Many Liberians think the United States has a duty to intervene, and last month's attacks on Monrovia fueled an international clamor for U.S. troops to be sent.

The United States has said it might be willing to make a commitment once a West African force is in place, but no date has yet been set.

Taylor has said he will step down when a foreign force arrives but President Bush says he must leave before American troops are sent.

"We are going to die here if the peacekeepers do not come soon. The dissidents will kill us," said Bill Wiley, an unemployed young man in Monrovia.

Troops loyal to Taylor sped toward the front line Friday to shore up the city's defenses.

A trickle of terrified civilians took to the roads as the fighting raged, racing to stay ahead of the rain of deadly mortar bombs that typically marks a rebel advance.

But many of those displaced during last month's battles were still in Monrovia, eking out a perilous existence huddled in a rain-drenched football stadium or abandoned buildings.

"The situation is very, very tense. Everybody is frightened," said one foreign aid worker.

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[cherry]

do you know if either group are Islamist?.....or is this a tribal war...

[xm177e2]

I think Pat Robertson was saying the rebels are Muslims (but Muslims aren't automatically bad guys). In this case, they are probably better than Taylor (which would make them the good guys).

I guess it's better for Bush to let the rebels beat Taylor mostly on their own, and just use political pressure and veiled threats to undermine Taylor's credibility.