Sierra Leone Capital Scene of Fierce Fighting

Jet fighters allied with government forces screamed over this besieged capital Saturday, firing rockets into rebel-held territory.

Black and gray smoke curled into the air near central Freetown, where insurgent fighters were in partial control after battling into areas of the city. The rebels had also seized much of the city’s east side.

The rebels are fighting government soldiers, a civil defense force militia and troops from a West African coalition army, known as ECOMOG.

Nigerian Alpha jets circled overhead for about an hour Saturday, searching for clusters of rebels.

Nearby, platoons of tense soldiers patrolled the near-empty streets of Freetown’s west end, and artillery rounds crashed into rebel positions in the hills to the south.

“We’ve taken up defensive positions and are holding our ground,” a government-allied district commander said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses reported seeing helicopters ferry scores of wounded soldiers from Freetown to the international airport at Lungi, about 20 miles to the north, where the ECOMOG force has its main base.

“I saw 60 or 70 wounded ECOMOG men evacuated. They looked like fresh injuries,” said one witness, who declined to be identified.

The casualties provided fresh evidence that ECOMOG has begun a counteroffensive after it was caught napping Wednesday and allowed the Revolutionary United Front, or RUF, to capture several districts of Freetown.

Senior rebel officers contacted by telephone said that their top field commander, Gen. Sam Bockarie, was involved in an urgent meeting and could not comment on the latest fighting plaguing the capital.

Bockarie, of the Revolutionary United Front, rejected a proclaimed cease-fire Friday, warning that his rebels would intensify their assault on the capital if he was not allowed to meet with his imprisoned leader.

The cease-fire was announced Thursday by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who said he had reached the accord with the imprisoned rebel leader, Foday Sankoh.

Sankoh was convicted by a Sierra Leone court of high treason and sentenced to death. The mastermind behind the RUF, Sankoh recruited and then unleashed a band of rebels who have led a years-long murderous rampage through villages and towns.