Liberian Rebels Advance

Rebels advancing on Liberia’s capital launched what the government said was their closest attack yet Monday, sowing panic in the city with the distant rumble of mortar and artillery.

With salvoes echoing just 15 miles away, frightened merchants shuttered shops and rushed home to hide, crossing paths with frantic parents rushing out in search of their children.

President Charles Taylor, a former warlord who fought his way to power, went on the radio at midday, voicing reassurance--and defiance.

“We are not even close to being defeated,” Taylor said on his private radio station.

Panic broke out early in the day as artillery and mortar blasts could be heard in Arthington, the nearby town where Taylor was born.

Taylor said fighting was still going on there at midday, as well as in Gbarnga, the central town that served as one of Taylor’s bases in the 1989-96 civil war. Gbarnga was the first site targeted last week when the rebels launched their latest attacks.

Military vehicles rolled through rapidly emptying streets in Monrovia, loaded with blue-jean-clad young government fighters bristling with rocket launchers.

“What is this, again? Where can we go, again?” cried one woman, abandoning her stall to scurry indoors.

A father pounded on the door of an elementary school, locked by a frightened principal to keep children from fleeing.

“Don’t you know Monrovia is on fire?” the distraught father yelled.

The rebels have revealed little about their means or their identity--only their aim: toppling Taylor.