ACCRA, Ghana -- Forces of Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings fought civilian government loyalists in a bloody coup that was the fifth forced takeover since independence of the 24-year-old West African nation.
It was the second coup in two years for the 34-year-old officer, who led a 1979 revolt against a military government. There was no word on casualties.
Rawlings said Thursday on captured Ghana Radio that he was disgusted with two years of civilian rule and said he wanted to root out corruption, U.S. and British diplomats said.
The coup leader 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.
Some 1,500 Americans live in the former British colony but a U.S. Embassy source said all were believed safe as fighting spread from the radio station in the capital to the airport and an army barracks on the outskirts of Accra.
Michael Gibbs, Britain's acting High Commissioner in Accra, said heavy shooting had been reported at the airport, at the Burma Camp army barracks 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.'
By daybreak Thursday, dissident forces had closed the airport after fierce fighting with troops loyal to President Hilla Limann, whose whereabout were not immediately known. Rawlings issued an appeal not to harm the president.
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.
