Rebel Assault Cancels Flights in Liberia : Uprising: Government troops are believed to be greatly outnumbered. They flee attackers near the airport, witnesses say.

Rebels routed government troops near Liberia’s main airport and forced all major international carriers to cancel flights Monday, diplomats and airline sources said.

The rebels led by dissident businessman Charles McArthur Taylor took the town of Owens Grove, 10 miles east of the airport, in a battle that witnesses said involved heavy artillery and mortars.

Government soldiers, who have yet to win a major victory in the six-month-long rebellion against President Samuel K. Doe, were seen fleeing across the nearby Firestone rubber plantation, the world’s largest.

“Our concern always has been a confrontation, but if the military is gone there is no confrontation,” one plantation official said.

The few remaining major airlines flying to Liberia, including British Airways and KLM, immediately suspended flights.

Other carriers canceled flights last week as the rebels seeking to overthrow Doe approached within 30 miles of Monrovia, the capital, which has a minimal military presence. Many residents have fled.

Observers said that between 500 and 1,000 soldiers answered a military roll call Monday. Taylor is believed to have as many as 3,500 men near Monrovia.

A U.S. naval task force of six ships with 2,000 Marines on board arrived over the weekend off the coast of Liberia, which was founded by freed American slaves in 1847, embassy sources said.

The U.S. government said the 6th Fleet task force was sent to evacuate about 1,100 Americans from the West African state if they are threatened by the fighting, but Liberian government officials said they would like the force to help defend Monrovia.

“We are happy about them coming--their coming is long overdue,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Henry Dubar told foreign reporters. “Just the presence of the Marines here will scare the rebels.”

U.S. sources said there are no plans for the Marines to take part in the conflict.

But diplomats said the United States appears to be playing a role in seeking a negotiated settlement.

Government sources and diplomats said a settlement would probably involve Doe’s departure. The Liberian Council of Churches has been in contact with the rebels, they said.

“The U.S. government is interested in seeing a negotiated political settlement to avoid a bloodbath in Monrovia,” one diplomat said. “Since Doe’s presence effectively blocks negotiations, that’s the stumbling block.”

The U.S. Embassy, under orders to evacuate all non-essential personnel, chartered a jet to fly out about 100 people, including 33 embassy staff and dependents, a contingent of American missionaries and two British Embassy staff.

They flew to neighboring Sierra Leone, where some of them planned to wait until the situation in Liberia is clarified.

Hundreds of women and children of Doe’s Krahn tribe poured into a tiny local airport hoping to fly to Guinea or parts of Liberia still under government control as Taylor’s rebels moved closer to Monrovia.

The Krahns fear reprisals by Gio and Mano tribesmen backing Taylor in what has become largely a tribal war.