Global Policy Forum

By Somini Sengupta

A contingent of 41 American Marines arrived here this morning to bolster security at the American embassy where thousands of Liberians have sought shelter from rebels who have pushed further into the city. The team joined the embassy's regular security force and another smaller contingent of Marines that were flown in on July 7 to accompany a humanitarian survey team that has been analyzing how the United States might help to end Liberia's armed conflict.

The arrival of the Marines pushes the number of American troops on the ground in Liberia to "more than 70'' though fewer than 100, said Capt. Sarah Kerwin, spokeswoman for the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. Captain Kerwin said the contingent's "primary mission is to enhance security,'' but she said the Marines will be prepared to evacuate the embassy if necessary. "They have the capability should it be needed,'' she said. "None of those words have been used, but should the need arrive, they can do it.''

There was heavy rebel shelling in the neighborhood of the embassy this morning with at least one shell landing on the roof a nearby hotel where some foreign journalists were staying. This was a continuation of fighting that broke out on Sunday as rebels opposed to President Charles Taylor pushed into the city, the government's last stronghold. The rebel assault, the third in six weeks, was described by residents and aid workers as the fiercest and most sustained of the three.

Reports from witnesses in several neighborhoods suggested that the rebel army, whose only stated goal is to oust President Taylor, tried first to come into the city's center from the north on Sunday, then from the east. The day's fighting wounded dozens of civilians, swelled the temporary camps to bursting and risked a breakout of disease.

As Liberia descended further into chaos, peacekeepers promised by other West African countries had yet to arrive. President Bush, who has offered assistance to those peacekeepers, said last week that he was considering sending in American troops for a mission of limited scope and duration, provided that Mr. Taylor stepped aside. Liberia, which has historic links to the United States, has been unstable for many years.

"We don't see any sign of the fighting stopping,'' said Prince Jallabah, stranded in his apartment on one side of a bridge leading to the city center. Bursts of gunfire and shelling sent other people dashing through the streets for cover. Stray bullets punctured the windows of a Roman Catholic school compound that now houses hundreds of displaced Monrovians. "One every half hour,'' Sister Barbara Brilliant, an American nun who runs the school, said this evening. "That's why we are on the floor.''

By Sunday evening, rebels appeared in control of the port, while the government held the airport, on the city's outskirts. Downtown remained in government hands, and on Sunday afternoon, forces loyal to Mr. Taylor took advantage of that by going on a looting spree. Witnesses described armed men, as well as civilians, grabbing prizes: one had a kerosene stove, others had shoes and toys.

Bizarrely, a statement by the rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, said it had no intention of capturing Monrovia. Later, a rebel figure, Kabineh Janeh, said by telephone from Ghana, where both sides said they remained in peace talks, that the advance was simply to stop assaults on rebel positions outside the city. "We are asking our troops to exercise restraint,'' Mr. Janeh added. "We do not wish to take over Monrovia.''

Mr. Taylor, elected in 1997 after waging a guerrilla insurgency lasting eight years, promised to step aside but has refused to leave until peacekeepers arrive. Mr. Taylor, widely denounced for worsening the region's troubles, has been accused of providing aid to rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds.

The violence has made most of the city impassable. Wounded civilians, most carried in wheelbarrows and on people's backs, trickled into makeshift clinics run by international aid agencies in the southernmost point of the city on Sunday; by the end of the day, roughly 220 had been treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds. The already jam-packed, unhealthy shantytowns of people displaced by the fighting swelled once again, and a dwindling water supply, combined with a dearth of toilets, threatened to send cholera spinning out of control. "We've got drugs, we've got staff, but if we can't get water in here, it will get really nasty,'' said Magnus Wolfe Murray, country manager for Merlin, the agency that runs health clinics and builds toilets at Greystone, a jammed United States Embassy-owned compound across from the chancery.

At Greystone, once a storage yard, the population doubled in the last day to more than 20,000, the agency estimates. There was no tarpaulin left to cover the bamboo frame tents wedged into the field. Stray bullets entered a tent for cholera patients, as well as the embassy grounds across the street. Around the corner, a radio station operated by the Roman Catholic Church was shelled.

Over the weekend the American ambassador, John W. Blaney, called for the rebels to halt their advance. In a statement, the mediator of Liberian peace talks, a former Nigerian military head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, called for an end to the fighting. "The international community will not tolerate power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means,'' he said.

Mr. Taylor's information minister, Reginald Goodridge, accused the insurgents of thwarting the peace talks. "I don't think the international community is prepared to see a democratically elected government overrun by a bunch of rebels,'' he added. West African countries that have promised to deploy troops first have not said when they will come. The Bush administration has said that any American military involvement would be limited in scope and duration and would be conditional on Mr. Taylor's stepping aside.

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