LIBERIA: REBELS AND GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF KEY BRIDGES IN MONROVIA

Record ID: 593608

  • Title: LIBERIA: REBELS AND GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF KEY BRIDGES IN MONROVIA
  • Date: 28th July 2003
  • Summary: (W5) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (JULY 28, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. HAV ,GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS ON BACK OF TRUCK DRIVING DOWN STREET 0.04 2. SLV SOLDIER WALKING IN WET PAVEMENT 0.10 4. SLV SOLDIER WALKING DOWN STREET 0.17 5. WIDE OF SOLDIERS GATHERED ON STREET SIDE 0.22 6. VARIOUS, ONBOARD GOVERNMENT LOYALIST CAR DRIVING DOWN ROAD 0.29 7. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RUNNING FOR COVER 0.37 8. VARIOUS, GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS INSIDE BUILDING OVERLOOKING BRIDGE REBELS ARE THREATENING TO TAKE 0.47 9. CLOSE OF GLASS WINDOW OF BUILDING DAMAGED BY GUNFIRE FROM REBELS (2 SHOTS) 0.54 10. SMV GOVERNMENT LOYALIST PLACING KNIFE AROUND WAIST BELT 0.59 11. PAN OF SOLDIERS LOOKING DOWN ON BRIDGE 1.04 12. SMV SOLDIERS POINTING MACHINE GUN FROM WINDOW/ CLOSE OF FEET OF SOLDIER (2 SHOTS) 1.13 13. SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) GOVERNMENT LOYALIST NICKNAMED "WARLORD" "I am very tired indeed but yes, (I will) stay because I want do defend the people of my country." 1.21 14. PAN OF SOLDIER LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW 1.28 15. WIDE OF VIEW FROM BUILDING OF BRIDGE UNDER CLOUDS 1.32 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
  • Country: Liberia
  • Reuters ID: LVACL35C456KMV0DO196SCFRMR3V
  • Story Text: Heavy gunfire rang out across Liberia's capital
    Monrovia as rebels and forces loyal to President Charles
    Taylor battled for key bridges while desperate residents
    dodged bullets to search for food.



    Rebels thrust along a main road on the route to the
    airport on Monday (July 28) but government forces pushed the
    insurgents back and the fighting quietened somewhat under
    pelting rain.

    People set buckets, bowls and cups under tin roofs to
    collect pouring rain for drinking. Food was harder to get --
    people scraped whatever they could from makeshift markets.

    Earlier, bursts of heavy gunfire echoed around two bridges
    at the threshold of the city centre after rebels rejected a
    U.S. call to pull out immediately so peacekeepers could
    deploy.

    The rebels of Liberians United for Reconciliation and
    Democracy (LURD) have been battling inside the city limits for
    10 days to oust Taylor, a former warlord who has agreed, under
    U.S. pressure, to quit if peacekeepers come.

    Soldiers loyal to president Charles took positions inside
    a building hit by gunfire from rebels. From there, despite the
    low clouds, they could see one of the key bridges the rebels
    are threatening to take.

    A loyalist fighter nicknamed "War-block" vowed to fight to
    the end: "I am very tired indeed but yes, (I will) stay
    because I want do defend the people of my country."
    In Ghana's capital Accra, West African officials began
    meeting on Monday (July 28) with the Nigerian head of a
    planned peacekeeping force, Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo,
    and U.S. military experts to finalise plans to send in troops.

    The top official of West Africa's regional bloc ECOWAS
    (Economic Community of West African States) has said troops
    will arrive this week but not date has yet been set. West
    African leaders have pledged to deploy some 1,300 Nigerian
    soldiers as the vanguard force of a larger mission.

    The government says 1,000 civilians have been killed in
    the latest attack on a city battered by 14 years of violence.

    Among the dead are scores of civilians, killed when mortars
    slammed into the flimsy buildings where they were sheltering.

    On Sunday (July 27), at least 14 people were killed as
    fighting raged, but by the end of the day the front line had
    changed little.

    Aid workers said there were no reports of starvation, but
    hunger was growing. The traditional staple of green leaf sauce
    with rice has often become little more than the sauce.

    The United States has long been seen by Liberia as a
    covert ally of the rebels because of its military aid to
    Guinea -- their main backer. Yeaten said he feared the U.S.

    call to withdraw was "a fake" to disguise rebel attack plans.

    Pamela Bridgewater, a senior U.S. State Department
    official, visited Guinea for talks with the foreign minister
    on Sunday and called for an immediate ceasefire. Peace talks
    in Ghana's capital Accra have made little progress as fighting
    continues.

    Three U.S. warships are sailing towards Liberia, though
    their role will be largely to support the West African force
    and there is no suggestion yet that U.S. troops will deploy.

    Liberians look up to the United States as a big brother
    because their country was founded by freed American slaves
    more than 150 years ago.

    Taylor, who won elections after the last war ended in
    1997, is accused of fanning years of regional strife and is
    wanted by an international war crimes court in Sierra Leone.





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