Americans Flown to Safety From Liberia : Rebellion: The capital is described as tense. Witnesses say the main airport has fallen to rebels.

More than 300 Americans fleeing the fighting in Monrovia arrived here aboard chartered jets Sunday on the way to the United States, and some said they are relieved to be out of the tense Liberian capital.

“The streets are virtually deserted. It’s a very tense situation,” said Al Jackson of Atlanta, who works in diamond mining in Liberia, where rebels are trying to topple the government of President Samuel K. Doe.

The 362 Americans were evacuated from the West African nation in three Air Guinea flights after heavy fighting about 35 miles from the capital.

They planned to fly to Charleston, S.C., today.

In Monrovia, rebels won control of Liberia’s main international airport, which had already been closed because of fighting, and recaptured most of a rubber plantation outside the embattled capital, witnesses said. The reports came on the eve of planned peace talks between the rebels, led by Charles Taylor, and the government.

Jackson and his wife, Carol, were among about 120 people who arrived on the first flight to Abidjan from the small Spriggs Payne Airfield in the Liberian capital.

Seanee Massaquoi, 16, who had been attending Konola Academy boarding school 52 miles from Monrovia, said of the fighting: “The only word I could use to describe it would be violent.” The teen-ager, the daughter of an American mother and Liberian father, said her school was closed Thursday, and the next day the campus was raided.

U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Brown greeted the evacuees at an embassy building in Abidjan normally used as a warehouse and equipment repair shop.

“We know this is a painful and stressful time, and we’re going to do our best to help you get through it,” he told them.

The evacuees were given cookies and sandwiches, and medical help was available. There was even a professional storyteller for the children.

Johnny Connelly, a 26-year-old missionary from Madison, Ga., left Liberia with his wife, Janice, and their 2-year-old son, Josiah.

“We just thought it would be best to leave at this time while we still had a chance,” said Connelly, who has been teaching Bible classes in public schools for two years.