Nigerian Jets Bomb Rubber Plantation in Liberia; 38 Killed

Nigerian jets in a multinational force defending Monrovia bombed the Firestone rubber plantation and killed at least 38 of its employees and their relatives, officials said Tuesday.

Military sources said rebel leader Charles Taylor had been storing munitions at the American-managed plantation at Harbel, a Firestone company town 30 miles east of the capital. Taylor’s forces denied the claim.

About 25 Americans were working at the sprawling plantation when the three planes bombed it, the chief spokesman for Nashville-based Bridgestone-Firestone Inc. said, but none were hurt. He said all the casualties were civilians.

Up to 3,000 people, mainly civilians, may have died since the siege of Monrovia began on Oct. 15, Dr. Ruth Tshabalala of Swaziland, the World Health Organization director, said Tuesday. She said the fighting had prevented an accurate body count.

Dr. Johan Heffinck of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Belgium said his organization’s workers were evacuated Tuesday to neighboring Ivory Coast from behind Taylor’s lines, leaving no international relief agencies operating there. The United Nations, the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Lutheran World Service all have evacuated their international staffs from the area over the past 10 days.

Sources in the seven-nation West African force, which intervened two years ago to try to halt Liberia’s civil war, said Tuesday that a major offensive was being prepared against Taylor’s troops.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy said it was trying to contact Taylor to arrange the recovery of the bodies of five American nuns believed to have been killed by his troops last week. The slayings shocked foreigners and Liberians, who are predominantly Christian.