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Shelling wipes out family, dog
27/07/2003 14:25 - (SA)
Monrovia - Mortar shells slammed into homes near Monrovia's rebel-held port, killing at least 14, including two children, aid workers said on Sunday.
It was the latest in eight days of deadly bombardments in neighbourhoods, schools and churches crowded with refugees in Liberia's besieged capital, target of a two-month-old rebel drive to oust President Charles Taylor.
One round landed on a tin-roofed shack near a much-fought-over bridge leading to the port before dawn on Sunday, killing four, according to aid workers collecting bodies.
Another shell fell on a nearby house late on Saturday, the aid workers said, killing an entire family of eight adults, two young children and a pet dog.
Rebels attacking Monrovia are pressing home a three-year insurgency to drive out Taylor, a former warlord behind 14 years of near perpetual conflict in this West African country.
Fighting has focused on the port and three bridges leading to downtown, one of Taylor's last strongholds.
Rebels and government forces hold opposite sides of the bridges, and both are fighting to get across.
Both sides have blamed the other for repeated shelling into densely populated civilian neighborhoods.
On Saturday, shells hit a church packed with refuge seekers, killing at least three. Shells pounded a neighbourhood around Monrovia's US Embassy on Friday, killing at least 26, and injuring more than 200. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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