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About 300 civilians killed in fighting in Liberia
Monrovia, June 26: Liberia`s health minister today reported 200-300 civilians killed and 1,000 wounded in a two-day battle for the country`s besieged capital, and morgue workers described mortuaries filled to overflowing.
Monrovia, June 26: Liberia's health minister today reported 200-300 civilians killed and 1,000 wounded in a two-day battle for the country's besieged capital, and morgue workers described mortuaries filled to overflowing.
Soldiers commandeered private vehicles to collect more broken bodies from the streets of Monrovia at daylight, working to a backdrop of pounding rain and crackling gunfire.
Monrovia was on edge but calmer, with the shelling, rockets and frantic refugee movements of the past two days silenced.
However, there was no indication of retreat by rebels fighting to take the city, and unconfirmed reports had rebels sighted around the port.
Rebels are driving home a three-year war to oust warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, a newly indicted UN-war-crimes suspect who launched the west African nation into 14 years of conflict in 1989.
Earlier, health minister Peter Coleman said that the past two days of fighting in the city had killed between 200-300 civilians, and injured 1,000.
There was no word on government or rebel casualties.
Mortuary workers put the civilian toll in the "hundreds," describing morgues stacked with dead.
Coleman said the dead included at least nine Liberians killed when rockets struck an evacuated US diplomatic residential compound yesterday. Thousands of Monrovia's residents had taken refuge in the compound, which is across the street from the heavily guarded US embassy.
Bureau Report
Monrovia was on edge but calmer, with the shelling, rockets and frantic refugee movements of the past two days silenced.
However, there was no indication of retreat by rebels fighting to take the city, and unconfirmed reports had rebels sighted around the port.
Rebels are driving home a three-year war to oust warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, a newly indicted UN-war-crimes suspect who launched the west African nation into 14 years of conflict in 1989.
Earlier, health minister Peter Coleman said that the past two days of fighting in the city had killed between 200-300 civilians, and injured 1,000.
There was no word on government or rebel casualties.
Mortuary workers put the civilian toll in the "hundreds," describing morgues stacked with dead.
Coleman said the dead included at least nine Liberians killed when rockets struck an evacuated US diplomatic residential compound yesterday. Thousands of Monrovia's residents had taken refuge in the compound, which is across the street from the heavily guarded US embassy.
Bureau Report