ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
U.S. Special Forces helicopters evacuated 26 Americans from the war-torn Liberian capital of Monrovia late Tuesday, as the government here laid plans for a full-scale evacuation of another 425 Americans and possibly hundreds of other people, officials said.
Tuesday night, fierce fighting broke out anew near the American embassy between a rebel faction and troops loyal to the government, the officials said.
It would be the third evacuation of American citizens from Liberia in the country's six-year civil war, which has pitted several rebel factions against government troops.
Liberia's bloodiest gunfire and shelling in three years broke out Saturday after the country's ruling Council of State fired warlord Roosevelt Johnson from his job as a government minister and ordered him arrested for murder. Johnson's followers attacked troops loyal to the council, which is made up of several factions that had been fighting often since 1990.
Tuesday saw a lull in the fighting, briefly raising questions about whether a larger evacuation was worth the risk. New shooting Tuesday night convinced State Department officials to approve a full-scale evacuation, according to an administration official who asked to remain unidentified.
``There is shooting very close to the embassy,'' the official said Tuesday evening. ``Final preparations for an evacuation are under way.''
Earlier in the day, State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said the situation was ``very chaotic and dangerous'' but there was ``no imminent danger to American citizens. ... Nobody's being targeted.''
The U.S. military plan called for a security force of about 150 Special Forces troops to fly into Monrovia on Tuesday night, most likely in helicopters. It was unclear whether any U.S. planes standing by in Freetown, Sierra Leone, might also assist in the evacuation.
Assembled in Freetown are several large C-5A and C-130 transport planes, as well as a number of AC-130 gunships, MC-130 intelligence aircraft, and HC-130 refueling planes, said officials of the U.S. European Command in Germany. U.S. Special Forces personnel in Liberia were trying to determine whether the large transport planes could land at Monrovia's shell-damaged airport.
U.S. officials said the earlier removal of 24 American adults and two children from Monrovia to Freetown's Lungi airport aboard U.S. Special Forces MH-53 helicopters did not necessarily presage full-scale evacuation. It was undertaken ``because they weren't going to fly out empty,'' said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon.
The evacuation could be complicated by approximately 15,000 frightened Liberians crowded into the embassy's housing complex. In addition, it could prove difficult to gather the hundreds of Americans spread over several suburban towns outside the city.
But U.S. officials said the evacuation, as difficult and dangerous as it is, will be made easier because of the recent experience rescuing U.S. citizens there. The rescue was to commence under cover of darkness, as U.S. officials tried to get word to Americans scattered in and near the capital and advised them on negotiating roadblocks to get to collection points, the administration official said.
U.S. officials must decide who's eligible to fly out with the Americans. About a dozen countries, including Britain and Lebanon, have asked for help extracting their citizens. American officials said they want to accomplish the evacuation without inciting panic or hostility among Liberians.
Eighteen Navy Seals and Army Special Forces personnel, who flew in on the helicopters from Freetown on Tuesday, spent several hours assessing the situation on the ground for Ambassador William Milam, and were to assist in the evacuation, U.S. officials said.
Rebel troops have held hostage hundreds of civilians and West African peacekeeping soldiers in a military barracks in Monrovia, apparently using them as a bargaining chip with government forces and other rebel factions.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by AP.by CNB