More US troops arrive
2003-07-23 20:18
Monrovia - US military helicopters swept in to Liberia's embattled capital on Wednesday, ferrying in US Marine reinforcements and ferrying out 17 foreign evacuees.
The Marines are part of a 41-member security team deploying to boost security at the US Embassy, which has remained staffed throughout two months of rebel offensives launched to take Monrovia and drive out President Charles Taylor.
Three helicopters with Marines landed by midafternoon, whirring in as a thick fog bank moved in over the rain-soaked city. Additional helicopters were expected later in the afternoon.
It was not immediately clear how many Marines were arriving on Wednesday.
Authorities had said about half of the 41-member security team arrived on Monday, before shelling and other heavy fighting forced suspension of that day's flights.
The first helicopters left again with 17 aid workers and foreign journalists.
Numbers of Americans have been holed up at the sprawling embassy compound during recent days of heavy fighting.
The United States has yet to order a full-scale evacuation of US Embassy staffers and other remaining Americans in Monrovia.
Separately, French special forces oversaw evacuation Wednesday of a French news photographer shot and wounded in fighting on Saturday.
Twenty-seven French special forces members guarded Patrick Robert as a plane brought in by the French military flew him from Liberia's main airport. The photographer had been undergoing treatment at a Red Cross trauma centre.
- Sapa-AP
- SAPA