Faced with a flare-up in Liberia’s civil war, the United States has ordered 41 additional troops to the capital of the West African nation, but given no word on whether it will send peacekeepers.
The soldiers, from a naval ”anti-terrorism security team” based in Rota, Spain, are to join US Marines currently guarding the US embassy in Monrovia, the Defence Department said as it announced the move late on Sunday.
There was no indication US President George Bush was any closer to making a decision on US participation in a peacekeeping force being considered for Liberia, despite the spiraling violence.
The deployment was ordered by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the request of US Ambassador John Blaney, according to a Pentagon statement.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to provide any further details.
The move comes as Liberian government troops are locked in a fierce battle for control of the capital with advancing rebels seeking the ouster of President Charles Taylor.
On Sunday, government forces repulsed a rebel advance on two key bridges that lead to the heart of Monrovia, where many diplomatic missions are located.
However, heavy fighting continued to rage in the city centre, with at least five rockets landing there in the afternoon, sparking fresh panic among desperate local residents.
The deployment order was followed by a new US government appeal to all warring parties for an immediate restoration of a short-lived June 17 ceasefire brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
”Liberia’s path to peace is through the multi-party peace talks led by former Nigerian President (Abdulsalami) Abubakar,” State Department Deputy spokesperson Philip Reeker said late on Sunday in a written statement.
These talks are being conducted in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.
Reeker added that the Bush administration was ”deeply concerned” about the latest round of fighting, arguing that the people of Liberia were the ultimate victims of this violence.
”All parties in Liberia must immediately recognise that their actions will have dire consequences for their nation,” warned the deputy spokesperson.
He said the United States continued to work closely with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Ecowas leaders in their attempts to bring peace and stability to Liberia.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had two telephone conversations with Annan on Sunday to examine ways to defuse the crisis, according to a US official.
”We also ask the leaders of West Africa to use their influence and leverage to prevent further violence, by controlling their borders and not allowing the flow of weapons into Liberia,” Reeker said.
The main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), is said to draw the bulk of its support from neighbouring Guinea.
The deployment of a US counterterrorism team marks a second attempt to shore up the US embassy’s defences in as many months.
Bush dispatched 35 combat troops to Monrovia in early June, when the fighting moved perilously close to the American mission.
The Bush administration is considering sending troops to Liberia as part of an Ecowas-led peacekeeping mission designed to end the country’s protracted war, but it is insisting Taylor step down first.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon dispatched a 32-member US military assessment team to the country, whose task was to determine what role, if any, the US military could play in Liberia.
But although US diplomats at the United Nations have prepared a draft Security Council resolution authorising deployment of a peacekeeping force, Bush has so far made no formal decision about US participation. – Sapa-AFP