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90 killed in liberia mortar barrage { July 21 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25479-2003Jul21.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25479-2003Jul21.html
Mortar Barrage Kills 90 in Liberia
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
The Associated Press
Monday, July 21, 2003; 9:18 PM
MONROVIA, Liberia - A thundering barrage of mortars shook Liberia's capital, hitting two U.S. Embassy compounds and residential neighborhoods and killing more than 90 people as government and rebel forces fought over President Charles Taylor's last stronghold.
Wailing with grief, Liberians lined up bloodied, mangled bodies outside the U.S. Embassy on Monday, demanding to know why Washington has not sent troops to end more than a decade of strife in the country founded by freed American slaves.
With more than 360 people wounded, it appeared to be the bloodiest single day of fighting in three rebel attempts to take Monrovia in the past two months.
Helicopters swept into the embassy Monday, bringing in a U.S. Marines contingent to protect the facility and evacuating some foreigners.
In Washington, U.S. officials announced that some 4,500 more American sailors and marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation.
"We're concerned about our people," U.S. President George W. Bush told a news conference in Crawford, Texas.
But he indicated that he had not yet decided the size of a U.S. force that might be sent to help a promised West African peacekeeping mission in Liberia. "We continue to monitor the situation very closely," Bush said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Washington and West African states once again to commit troops. "I think we can really salvage the situation if troops were to be deployed urgently and promptly," he said.
During more than two hours of sustained mortar fire, a shell slammed into a U.S. Embassy residential compound where some 10,000 terrified Liberians had taken refuge, killing 25 people, aid workers said. Many more were wounded in the strike, including two Liberian embassy guards.
Across the street, in the sprawling embassy complex overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, a shell hit the commissary building. There were no reports of injuries there.
After the blasts, enraged Liberians dragged bodies from the residential compound and lined them up in front of the embassy, next to a wall emblazoned with the American seal.
"We're dying here," screamed some in the crowd, as two American servicemen in camouflage watched from behind bulletproof glass.
One man held up a hastily scrawled sign: "Today G. Bush kill(ed) Liberia people."
Down the hill from the Embassy, a small boy lay face-down in the grass - victim of another blast just meters (yards) away. Neighborhood residents used a mat to carry away a man bleeding from the leg.
In a densely populated residential neighborhood, a shell hit a house, killing 18 people in one strike, emergency workers at the scene said.
At least 47 Liberians were killed in other strikes Monday, said officials at Monrovia's main John F. Kennedy hospital and aid groups.
At the hospital, patients screaming with pain lay on mattresses on the floor.
"We really don't know how we are going to cope with the situation," said Mohammed Sheriff, the hospital's medical director. "All of a sudden we just started receiving, and receiving and receiving."
More than 200 injured people arrived at the hospital in pickup trucks, police cars and wheelbarrows. About 50 others were being treated at an International Committee of the Red Cross trauma center and 112 at two clinics set up by French medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.
Tom Masland, an American who is Newsweek magazine's African regional editor, was hit in the arm by shrapnel in Monrovia's port area, scene of fierce fighting since Saturday.
Before the shelling started, American HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters landed in U.S. Embassy compound in driving rain, dropping off about half of a 41-member marine security team.
About 23 foreign humanitarian workers and journalists clutching bags and backpacks then ran down to the spinning aircraft. Among them were the United Nation's last seven foreign staffers, who had returned to Monrovia just two weeks before during a lull in fighting
Many expressed frustration at having to leave.
"We came in to do a job. We have the ability and resources to do the job. But we don't have the security," said Eleanor Monbiot of World Vision.
Hundreds of disappointed Liberians stood in the street outside, many asking when U.S. Marines would come to help them.
"What we need aren't those that are just coming to mind American properties, but those who will be deployed on the ground to give us the feeling that peace is really coming," said Moses Smith, 32, who stood in a cluster of people following events on a hand-held radio.
West African nations have promised to send more than 1,500 troops to enforce a repeatedly violated June 17 cease-fire. But many here won't be satisfied that stability is possible unless U.S. peacekeepers land in the country.
"The international community has once again let the people of Liberia down," Information Minister Reginald Goodrich said.
He accused the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, rebel movement of a "very vicious, very murderous" attack.
But Joe Wylie, a LURD delegate at peace talks in nearby Ghana, said the government also was firing shells.
"LURD was not responsible for shooting mortars into the embassy," Wylie said. "We have our backs to the U.S. Embassy ... They (government forces) were shooting at us."
He threatened to capture Taylor if he did not leave voluntarily.
Bush has said any deployment of U.S. troops is conditional on the departure of Taylor, a former warlord indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone, where he supported a notoriously brutal rebel movement.
Taylor has pledged to resign and accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria - but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition.
Until then, Taylor has vowed to fight to the last man in Monrovia, his last remaining stronghold after three years of civil war.
Taylor launched Liberian's last civil war in 1989, emerging in 1996 as the country's strongest warlord. He was elected president the following year
© 2003 The Associated Press
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