I herd that the US is sending a small task force but there is no plans for them to land there troops. Is there any chance that the UN will be asked to send a force out there.Nation and World
Liberian rebels seize key city
Liberian rebels seized the city of Buchanan and attacked the town of Gbarnga yesterday in a two-pronged offensive which paved the way for intensified assaults on the capital, Monrovia.
President Charles Taylor's regime buckled as the rebels made unexpected and apparently easy gains in the provinces as the battle for the capital entered its 10th day.
West African leaders and officials from the UN and US were last night expected to announce a date for a Nigerian-led force to intervene, but the rebels' swift advance threatened to overtake the peacekeeping deployment.
General Benjamin Yeaten, a senior government commander, confirmed that Buchanan, a strategic port 60 miles southeast of Monrovia, had fallen to the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, the country's second largest rebel group.
His forces would counter-attack, the general said, but residents reached by telephone were sceptical, saying that the rebels were in complete control of the city.
Analysts said the way was now clear for an all-out attack on Monrovia, where aid agencies estimate that more than 400 people have died in the past two weeks. Conditions for the living have steadily worsened, with disease, hunger and thirst adding to the death toll.
"We are hoping that the peacekeeping forces are coming this week to relieve us of this misery," the Rev Franklin Holt, president of Monrovia College, told the Associated Press. As mortar shells landed nearby, he added: "They [the peacekeepers] are very late. Extremely late."
Monrovia is being attacked by the largest rebel force, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd). Having rejected a US appeal for a ceasefire on Sunday, the group tried to tighten the noose around the capital yesterday by crossing three bridges into government-held territory. The army claimed to have pushed them back, but some reports said the rebels had managed to bypass Stockton bridge, which connects the rebel-held island port to the mainland.
For the city's 1.3 million residents there is no front line behind which they can shelter, as both sides lob mortar shells into crowded neighbourhoods. A rocket fired yesterday by government forces hit a house on the side of the city they are supposed to be defending, wounding eight civilians, according to aid workers.
"People are just moving up and down, shedding tears, mourning their families. The situation is not humanly comprehensible," said one aid worker, Patrick Broh.
West African leaders meeting in Accra, Ghana, said that months of dithering would end this week with the dispatch of peacekeepers. But rumours that a vanguard force would arrive today were played down by the Nigerian brigadier general who will oversee the deployment. Festus Okwonkwo told reporters that a deployment this week was "unlikely".
Washington has sent three warships packed with marines but has not said whether the marines will go ashore. The Pentagon hopes that the west African force will be enough to impose order.
The squabbles in Accra about funding and logistics have been compounded by the rebels' refusal to stop shooting until the peacekeepers arrive.
Mr Taylor has refused to step down - the rebels' main demand - until the foreign troops arrive, and his promise to accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria is taken with a pinch of salt.
Analysts worry that Lurd has no clear political agenda beyond removing him, and that the chaos could continue after he falls.
I have seen on the news that the situation in Liberia is getting worse, so if there is going to be any intervention buy the UN or US force's then I think sooner is better than later.
