Liberian Rebels Seize Key Bridge Leading to Heart of Capital City

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 20, 2003

Liberian Rebels Seize Key Bridge Leading to Heart of Capital City

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Advancing Liberian rebels firing heavy mortars and machine guns have captured the St Paul's Bridge, about 10 km from the heart of the capital Monrovia, according to reports reaching here from Monrovia on Saturday.

The advance of the rebels has not only sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing but also smashed hopes that promised West African peacekeepers could deploy quickly to allow President Charles Taylor to step down to end the four-year bloody civil war.

"The rebels are over the bridge, and the fighting is moving towards the brewery," said a military official.

Quite a number of government troops loyal to President Taylor gave up resistance, saying that they did not want to risk their lives for a man who had already said he would leave Liberia for asylum in Nigeria.

The latest fighting comes without the presence of a peacekeeping force promised earlier this month by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Diplomats at the United Nations said Thursday that the peacekeeping troops would not be deployed until mid-August at the earliest.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had called on the ECOWAS to send the vanguard force of 1,000 to 1,500 troops to Monrovia by July 31, warning that any delay would make the situation there more dangerous.

Twice last month, LURD forces fought their way almost to the heart of the capital, which claimed hundreds dead, thousands wounded and tens of thousands displaced, the most intense of the bloody four-year civil war in the country.

Residents of Monrovia criticized the delay in the ECOWAS deployment and called on the international community to send peacekeepers immediately.

The United States is under pressure to take a lead role in the peacekeeping force for Liberia.

US President George W. Bush said this week after a meeting with Annan that the United States would only send troops after the ECOWAS force was deployed and after President Charles Taylor gives up power.

Indicted for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone by a UN-mandated court, Taylor has said he would leave the country, but only after a peacekeeping force arrives.

The Liberian civil war, which lasted about 15 years and claimed at least 200,000 lives, flared up again in 1998 following attacks launched by the LURD rebels in northern Liberia.

Civil war over the past decade has made Liberia among the most miserable places in the world and the latest unrest since 1998 has forced some 300,000 Liberians to flee to neighboring countries and claimed thousands more lives.

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