Embattled Liberian leader Charles Taylor vowed Saturday to fight to the last man against a rebel assault as his armed opponents advanced and crossed a key bridge leading into the capital, Monrovia.
Taylor was talking tough. "We will fight street to street, house to house and we will defeat them," he warned, speaking from his Executive Mansion in the city. "I will stand and fight to the last man until they stop killing my own people."
| Uhhh... They are your people... |
Meanwhile, rebel leader Sekou Damate Konneh denied that his forces have taken the offensive. "We were provoked. Taylor has been attacking us every day," Konneh told AllAfrica by telephone from Conakry, capital of neighboring Guinea, which has backed his movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd). Asked what instructions he had given to his forces in Monrovia, he said: "The boys are trying to maintain their position. I told them we are not going to hijack any government, but we have to keep the pressure on for Taylor to leave." |