ACCRA, Ghana -- Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup in two years Thursday and heavy fighting was reported across the capital between his forces and those loyal to the civilian government that succeeded him.
It was the fifth coup for the tiny West African nation in the 24 years since independence and initial reports from Western diplomats in Ghana indicated it was a bloody one.
An estimated 1,500 Americans live in the former British colony. But a U.S. Embassy source said all were believed to be safe as fighting spread from a radio station in the capital to the airport and an army barracks on Accra's outskirts.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
British and American diplomats said heavy shooting broke out at the main Burma Camp army barracks before dawn. By daybreak, dissident forces had closed the airport after fierce fighting with troops loyal to President Hilla Limann, whose whereabout were not immediately known.
The dissidents also seized Ghana Radio, where Rawlings subsequently broadcast an appeal for unity, the diplomats said.
The 34-year-old officer, who led a 1979 coup against a military government, said he was disgusted with two years of civilian rule and that his objective was to root out corruption. He warned no harm should come to Limann.
Rawlings warned against foreign intervention in Ghana, closed the country's borders and said he had appointed a new chief of staff and a new armed forces commander.
Michael Gibbs, Britain's acting High Commissioner in Accra, said shooting had been reported at the airport, at the Burma Camp and at the radio.
'The shooting is dying down a bit now but we have no word on casualties,' Gibbs said. 'The rest of the city is calm.'
Limann was elected president in September, 1979, three months after Rawlings stepped down following a coup by junior officers against Gen. Fred Akuffo.
Akuffo and seven other senior officers were subsequently executed.
Ghana, slightly smaller than the state of Oregon and once one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, was the first black African colony to become independent in 1957.
