The leader of a rebel group fighting to oust Liberian President Charles Taylor said today they had seized the strategic city of Gbarnga, a former Taylor stronghold northeast of Monrovia.
"We have taken Gbarnga. We are in Gbarnga now," Sekou Conneh, the leader of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), told Reuters by telephone.
There was no independent confirmation the city had fallen, but Taylor's security forces confirmed they had been attacked in Gbarnga, 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Monrovia. They gave no further details.