Liberia peace forces reach rebel towns

MONROVIA, Liberia, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- United Nations peacekeeping troops in Liberia have entered two major rebel-held towns for the first time.

Some 7,000 U.N. troops have helped end 14 years of civil war in Liberia, but until last week they had mostly remained in the capital, Monrovia.

After the peacekeepers secure the towns of Buchanan and Gbarnga, aid agencies will be able to deliver badly needed help, a U.N. official told the BBC.

A team of 250 Bangladeshi soldiers has arrived in the port of Buchanan and some 1,000 others landed in Gbarnga, said U.N. spokesman Patrick Coker.

The U.N. troop movement is "more or less" a permanent deployment to provide a peacekeeping presence in areas that have remained unstable despite the peace pact and cease-fire in place, Coker said.

Last week, peacekeepers deployed for the first time outside Monrovia to secure the strategic Kley Junction.

Most of Liberia is still too unsafe for refugees to go home, aid workers said.