Fighting Erupts Between Task Force, Liberia Rebels

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Fighting broke out Saturday between rebels loyal to Charles Taylor and a West African task force sent to Monrovia to end Liberia’s 8-month-old civil war, the Ghana news agency reported.

The agency, which sent a reporter along with the five-nation force, said the troops had advanced from the capital’s port area toward the city center.

The 3,000 soldiers were welcomed upon arrival at the port Friday night by Taylor’s rival rebel chief, Prince Johnson. The fighting apparently flared after they left the area controlled by Johnson’s fighters.

Troops from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea make up the force. Togo said it would send troops but did not.

Taylor has threatened to fight the task force, saying their announced intention to stop the fighting is just a maneuver to keep President Samuel K. Doe in power. Taylor expressed concern that the force contains soldiers from Nigeria and Guinea, whose leaders have supported Doe in the past.

There were no immediate details on the fighting reported Saturday.

Taylor’s rebels invaded from Ivory Coast on Dec. 24, branding Doe’s government as corrupt and saying they would overthrow it. A rebel faction led by Johnson broke with Taylor in February.

Taylor’s National Patriotic Front has about 10,000 fighters. It is stronger than either the forces of Doe or Johnson.

A report by the News Agency of Nigeria, monitored in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, said earlier that the West African task force landed safely and that Nigerian naval headquarters was in touch with the task force troops.

The force was dispatched on six ships from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to enforce a cease-fire in a war in which more than 5,000 people, mostly civilians, have died.

Gunfire in Monrovia had delayed the task force’s landing earlier Friday.

Johnson’s forces control the port and most of Monrovia, the capital of about 400,000 people. Taylor’s fighters control most of the country outside the capital.

Forces under Johnson and troops loyal to Doe declared a truce Monday. They said they would welcome the West African intervention. They also said they were ready to join forces to resist any attacks by Taylor.

West African leaders decided to intervene on Aug. 6, saying the war was no longer an internal conflict because thousands of their citizens were trapped in Liberia and 400,000 Liberian refugees were burdening neighboring countries.