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Sunday Morning News

Sierra Leone Government Celebrates Strategic Victory Over Rebel Forces

Aired May 14, 2000 - 8:32 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now on to Sierra Leone, where the fighting continues. Late reports say rebels have launched a counterattack in a strategic town near the capital. The new fighting comes after pro-government forces were able to beat back rebels in an earlier battle near a major crossroad.

For more, we turn to CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wild gunfire in the town of Mashaka (ph) as government troops and irregulars celebrate another victory over the rebels. It took them only an hour to drive the Revolutionary United Front from Mashaka, 70 miles from Freetown.

(on camera): This is the latest town to fall to the government forces as the rebels fall further and further back into the interior.

(voice-over): On the way in, they ambushed a rebel truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun. A dead rebel lies by the side of the road. Discipline among pro-government forces is always lax. This exuberant fighting force sometimes seems more like a teenage street gang with guns than an army. But like any army, it moves on its stomach and the soldiers say they aren't getting enough to eat.

UNIDENTIFIED REBEL: More food, we need it. More food, we need it.

UNIDENTIFIED REBEL: We are just living by mangoes.

WEDEMAN: Some are just weekend warriors taking time off from school.

UNIDENTIFIED REBEL: Friday, Saturday and Sunday no study for me. I'll be on the battlefield to fight for my country.

WEDEMAN: Commander Joe heads the SBU, the small boys unit.

UNIDENTIFIED REBEL: Now I need, I want to go to school back. They killed my mother and my father. That is why I come in this war.

WEDEMAN: He says he's 16 years old, clearly older than some of the troops under his command. All sides to the conflict here have sent children into battle. The acting chief of the defense staff visited the town after its liberation. But with his troops in a dangerously jubilant mood, he didn't want to stick around. Whatever this army's shortcomings, for a moment it seems determined to move ahead.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Mashaka, Sierra Leone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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