Monrovia, Liberia
French troops airlifted American civilians out of Monrovia this week, as rebel fighters reached the outskirts of the Liberian capital. Special forces swooped down in Cougar military helicopters and stood guard with bazookas as U.S. aid workers and other Westerners were evacuated to a French ship waiting offshore. The long-simmering rebel insurgency against President Charles Taylor picked up steam last week when a U.N. court charged the president with war crimes for aiding Sierra Leone’s brutal rebels. Thousands of refugees from Sierra Leone who live in camps near Monrovia fled into the city as the fighting neared.
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