JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): United States has already moved two giant Air Force C-58 cargo planes like these to neighboring Sierra Leone, stand-by to evacuate some 450 American citizens from Liberia because of intensified fighting by rebels in the capital city of Monrovia. The State Department has a working group in Washington monitoring the situation around the clock. Pentagon sources say, should an evacuation be ordered, U.S. citizens would be flown by helicopter from various U.S. compounds in the coastal city of Monrovia to ships off- shore, or directly to the airport at Freetown, Sierra Leone.</s>STEVE HURST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. military is taking American citizens from the Liberian capital after the resumption of deadly factional fighting in the West African country founded by freed American slaves. Officials said, MH-53 Pavlow (ph) helicopters were flying into Monrovia and returning to neighboring Sierra Leone with evacuees.</s>GLYN DAVIES, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We want to make sure that American citizens are given the opportunity on those helicopters to leave the country if they wish.</s>HURST: At the State Department, a task force continued monitoring the crisis it has seen, in addition to those sheltered in the U.S. embassy, 10-15,000 Liberians holed up in the nearby 100-acre residential compound. Six years of fighting among seven rebel Liberian groups has killed more than 150,000 people and left half the population of 2.3 million homeless.
CNN 20: Liberia Strife Hits Capital, April 7, 1996