US Marines arrive in Liberia

‘‘This is all part of determining what is necessary to help ECOWAS … to go in and provide the conditions necessary for humanitarian relief to arrive,’’ he told reporters while on vacation at his ranch in Crawford.

ECOWAS head Mohammed Ibn Chambas said in Nigeria that Taylor would on Thursday formally announce his intention to resign and was expected to take asylum in Nigeria. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Nigerian peacekeeping troops, who began arriving in Liberia in recent days, had begun to “establish a sense of security and, I think, put hope back in the hearts of the Liberian people.”

The US troops were sent in from a task force of about 2,300 Marines aboard ships off the Liberian coast. Washington is reluctant to commit large numbers of troops because the American military is stretched thin by deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and elsewhere. (Reuters)