English/Nat
Fighters loyal to militia leader Charles Taylor have launched another attack on rebel forces holed up in a seaside barracks in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
Although the rebels, loyal to rival warlord Roosevelt Johnson, repelled the attack, Taylor's NPFL troops managed to advance to within 200 meters of the compound.
APTV has these dramatic pictures from the thick of the firefight which left at least five people dead.
Resembling an urban battlefield, debris and wrecked cars littered the street Tuesday, just four blocks from the compound where Roosevelt Johnson's men are holding out.
The sound of gunfire hung in the air as rebels loyal to militialeader Charles Taylor advanced towards Barclays Barracks.
APTV's cameraman Alistair Lyne ended up in the thick of the fight for the compound.
He filmed these dramatic pictures as Taylor's men were kept at bay by fighters inside the barracks who returned heavy fire.
As the battle raged, discipline broke down among the NPFL (National People's Liberation Front) troops of Taylor as the fighters argued among themselves over strategy and the distribution of ammunition.
Coming under heavy fire they fought back, surrounded by bodies lying in the street from earlier fighting.
One of their men was wounded but his comrades managed to pull him to safety.
Some of the fighters are only children - this boy is eight-years-old.
Coming under sniper fire, the NPFL began launching rockets at the compound.
SOUNDBITE:
I ordered my men to use the rockets towards BTC (the barracks). I ordered them to launch at BTC more rockets because the more we launch we reduce their firepower.
SUPER CAPTION: NPLF Field Commander John Garang]
Reinforcements arrived in a white van, marked as a combat medics vehicle.
It brought fresh ammunition to the NPLF troops and offered to evacuate the wounded.
After a lull in the fighting, Taylor's men regrouped and launched a second assault.
But again, arguments erupted over ammunition, with fighters shoving one another even as they came under heavy fire.
Smoke could be seen in the distance, the result of the rocket fire into the compound.
The attack left at least five dead inside the barracks.
But by the end of the afternoon, the NPFL had failed to penetrate Johnson's stronghold.
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