Marines Fired on Doe’s Mansion, Liberia Claims

U.S. Marines fired from a helicopter at the fortified mansion of President Samuel K. Doe on Thursday, wounding one of Doe’s advisers, a presidential spokesman claimed in a radio interview.

The State Department denied that the incident took place.

The Liberian spokesman described the attack as an attempt to assassinate Doe.

He said in a telephone call to the British Broadcasting Corp. that the unidentified Doe adviser was hit in the chest and neck and had been hospitalized. The spokesman called on the international community to pressure the United States to stop any attempt to remove Doe.

“We categorically deny that happened,” said a spokesman for the State Department’s Liberian task force.

About 225 Marines flew into Liberia last week to evacuate Americans who wished to leave and to protect the U.S. Embassy.

Meanwhile, rebel troops loyal to Charles Taylor attacked the eastern part of Monrovia in bitter fighting, overrunning the West German and Nigerian embassies and moving toward the airport.

The Guinean Embassy also was hit by Taylor’s troops and the ambassador was told to leave the country. Guinea has been a supporter of Doe, whom Taylor is trying to oust.

The rebels’ advance from the east brought them within a mile of Doe’s fortified executive mansion, which a rival rebel leader, Prince Johnson, has been approaching from the north.

The rebel movements raise tensions in the region two days after leaders of the West African Economic Community decided to send troops to impose a cease-fire in the seven-month civil war.

French Ambassador Luis Giustetti abandoned the French Embassy, located across from the U.S. compound, and flew out of the capital aboard a U.S. helicopter with his staff of three.

The double approach of the two rebel columns toward the presidential mansion, where about 500 hard-core tribal Krahn soldiers are involved in Doe’s last stand, leaves Doe with barely one square mile of Liberia under his control.

But a quarrel between Taylor and Johnson has kept the outcome in doubt.

Taylor has pledged to fight Johnson’s troops wherever they come face to face, while Johnson says he is interested only in defeating Doe.

Taylor’s rebels launched the embassy attack Wednesday night as part of their bid to capture the city before the five-nation West African force arrived, according to Western relief workers.

Diplomatic sources quoted Taylor as declaring he would capture the capital by the weekend.