Fighting continues in Liberia
Fighting flared on Monday night along the frontline between government and rebel forces in the Liberian capital Monrovia despite the arrival of the first batch of peacekeepers.
A family of three was seriously injured when a rocket hit their home in the West Point area of the city, a patch of overcrowded land packed with tin shacks running parallel to the battle front, health worker Patrick Broh said.
“They were badly injured. It came from the rebel side,” the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) official said.
“There was small arms fire this morning (Tuesday). One woman was shot in the neck and another woman and her baby were hurt,” he added.
Taylor plan
“We have intelligence information that Taylor’s men are hauling supplies and troops to prepare another attack. It might come today or tomorrow,” a rebel commander known as Jacob said.
Jacob claimed that even though a key bridge, the vortex of fighting in recent days, had been quiet as Taylor was planning to open a second front north of the city. He also denied that any rocket fire had come from his lines on Monday night, insisting that his men were observing a ceasefire.
| “We have intelligence information that Taylor’s men are hauling supplies and troops to prepare another attack.” –Rebel commander Jacob |
Liberia’s Defence Minister, Daniel Chea, said simply, “There is fresh fighting. I am awaiting a report.”
Hundreds of civilians have been killed since the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) launched an assault on the capital in early June.
On Monday the vanguard of a West African peacekeeping force arrived at an airport outside Monrovia, and President Charles Taylor repeated his promise to step down and allow the peace process to continue. But the frontlines in the four-year-old war are still tense.
Nigerian peacekeepers are being transported to Monrovia’s Robertsfield Airport, 40 km outside the city, but will not be up to full strength for several days.