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Mortar attack on church kills seven LiberiansThird U.S. ship deployed to West African nation
MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- Mortar rounds slammed a church Saturday where residents of the Liberian capital had fled seeking safety, killing at least seven. It was the second consecutive day that shells hit a site housing civilians fleeing fighting in the war-torn nation. The fierce fighting between rebels seeking to topple President Charles Taylor and government troops ushered in war-torn Liberia's Independence Day, but help was on the way as Liberia's West African neighbors prepared to send peacekeeping troops and the USS Nashville, the last of three U.S. ships to head for the area, departed from off the coast of Djibouti. The first two ships are expected to arrive next Saturday; the Nashville is scheduled to arrive several days later, a senior defense official said. President Bush ordered U.S. troops to positions off the Liberian coast Friday. U.S. officials told CNN that more than 2,000 Marines will likely be sent to the region. President Taylor pledged, again, to step down from office, but said he was sticking to a vow not to abandon his country until peacekeepers are in place to safeguard civilians from rebels determined to remove him by force. Speaking Saturday at Monrovia's sports stadium -- where thousands of residents have fled to escape the relentless fighting -- President Taylor said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed since the rebels brought the fight to the capital's doorstep late last week. The recent violence is the latest round of the battered country's 14-year on-again, off-again civil war and the rebels' four-year fight to force Taylor out. Taylor spoke at the stadium during a prayer meeting and ceremony to mark Independence Day -- the anniversary of Liberia's founding by freed American slaves in 1847. Taylor told the crowd that he would hand over power to Vice President Moses Blah or House Speaker Nyudueh Morkonmana once the peacekeepers arrive. Both men stood behind the president as he spoke. Nigeria has committed the first peacekeeping contingent and is sending "two battalions as the vanguard of a broader engagement" by the Economic Community of West African States and the international community, according to a U.N. official. Aaron Kollie, Liberia's charge d'affaires to the United States in Washington, welcomed Bush's decision but said the American president had taken too long to make it. "We are disappointed and disgusted at the prolonged indecisiveness and inaction on the part of the United States government that has caused all this confusion in Liberia," he said. Bush said earlier this month that he would send peacekeepers to aid the West African deployment, but insisted that Taylor step down before he would allow U.S. troops into Liberia. "Given the close historical ties of friendship between Liberia and the United States, it is very unfortunate that President Bush would call on the duly elected president of Liberia to step down and leave the country without putting into place any immediate mechanism for the deployment of troops in Liberia and putting in place an orderly transition," Kollie said. "This has sent a very wrong message, and the [rebels] have taken advantage of it," Kollie said. On Friday, a mortal shell ripped into a school that has been serving as a refugee camp for hundreds who lost or fled their homes, killing at least 12 people. Earlier this week, another shell slammed into a residential compound belonging to the U.S. Embassy, killing at least 26 people.
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