MONROVIA, July 26: Mortar bombs slammed into and around a church packed with some 2,000 terrified refugees in Monrovia on Saturday, killing seven people as US forces sailed to take up positions off Liberia’s coast.

Pastor Michael Chea said three people were killed at the Greater Refuge Temple compound where the refugees were sheltering from fighting that has raged in the capital for more than a week as rebels battle to topple President Charles Taylor.

Fighters said four other people were killed in the same area on a second day of shelling in Monrovia, where refugees had flooded to escape fighting elsewhere in the country.

“Seven rockets landed here and one dropped in the (church) compound. It is very discouraging and we hope that this situation will come to an end. We are only living here by the mercy of God,” Chea said.

An eyewitness saw two bodies wrapped in cloth outside the church waiting to be buried.

Witnesses at the church said the shelling appeared to come from rebel lines. The rebels have repeatedly denied firing mortar bombs at civilian targets, accusing Taylor’s forces of doing so to make them look bad.

The church is near one of three key bridges leading into the city where fighting between government forces and the rebels has seesawed. Heavy gunfire resounded in the area around the bridges on Saturday. Some of the fighters are children.

Residents and aid workers said at least 30 seriously wounded civilians had been taken to Monrovia’s main hospital from the church compound.

Liberian officials said Taylor may address a prayer meeting at a stadium in Monrovia later on Saturday to mark the anniversary on which freed American slaves founded Liberia in 1847 in the name of liberty.

Liberians, who have been begging foreign troops to intervene for weeks, welcomed news of the U.S. deployment but it was not immediately clear whether Washington would put combat troops on the ground in Liberia.

The White House said on Saturday Washington’s current position was that its troops, who are about a week’s sailing time away from Liberia, would help a planned West African peacekeeping force to deploy.

PEACEKEEPING MISSION: West African states have set no date yet for the mission, but U.N. officials expect them to start deploying troops by the end of next week.

Traumatised Monrovia residents urged foreign troops to come as quickly as possible. But the United States still has painful memories of its last African foray that ended with Somalian warlords dragging the bodies of slain U.S. troops through the streets of Mogadishu.

“The more the delay, the more people will die. Let the Americans come now,” said civil servant Isaac Dennis.

Liberians believe the United States has a moral obligation to save a country founded by freed American slaves that has been crippled by nearly 14 years of almost non-stop war in which 200,000 people have been killed.

At least 23 people were killed and some 200 wounded on Friday in mortar attacks on two schools and near a hospital. Earlier in the week, Taylor’s government had put the death toll in the rebels’ latest attack on the capital, the third since June, at more than 600.

The fighting raged despite a ceasefire declared by the rebels on Friday shortly after President George W. Bush announced that U.S. troops were on their way.

With U.S. forces already stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is thought to be reluctant to put troops into a lead role in Liberia.

“Right now they are there to be positioned off the coast of Liberia so that we can help (West African peacekeepers) get in there. And that’s where it stands,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Saturday.

Bush said on Friday he was deeply concerned conditions for Liberia’s people were getting worse and worse.

He reiterated a demand that Taylor, indicted for war crimes by a U.N.-backed court, leave Liberia. Taylor has said he will step down and head into exile once foreign troops arrive, but it remains uncertain whether any will go in while battles rage.

On Friday, the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy group said it had called a ceasefire “with due respect to the international community and humanitarian concern” but vowed to defend its positions.

Two rebel factions, which have their roots in tribal hatreds inflamed by a civil war in the 1990s, hold about two-thirds of war-ruined Liberia.—Reuters