Shelling Hits U.S. Embassy in Liberia [View All]

[newyawker99]

Artillery shells crashed into the U.S. Embassy compound and refugee-crowded neighborhoods around it Friday, killing at least 12 Liberian men, women and children and wounding more than 100 people in the bloodiest barrage in days.

The onslaught brought new, desperate cries from Monrovia's trapped people for a multinational peace force - promised for weeks, but with no firm deployment date yet set.

"I want to tell (U.S. President) George Bush to do something hurriedly, very fast and quickly. People are dying every day," cried Emmanuel Sieh, 28, one of frantic crowds spilling into the streets in front of the U.S. Embassy after the worst of the barrage.

Government forces blamed the attack on rebels, who are fighting to oust President Charles Taylor, a warlord-turned president behind 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in this West African country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.


Liberia