Editing History of Liberia (section)

===Pressure of rebels, Presidents, and UN: Taylor resigns===
June 2003, LURD began a siege of Monrovia. July 9, the Nigerian President offered Taylor safe [[exile]] in his country, if Taylor stayed out of Liberian politics.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/09/liberia/|title=Nigeria would shield Taylor from trial|publisher=cnn.com|date=July 10, 2003|access-date=August 19, 2008|archive-date=December 18, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218050400/http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/09/liberia/|url-status=live}}</ref> Also in July, American President [[George W. Bush|Bush]] stated twice that Taylor “must leave Liberia”. Taylor insisted that he would resign only if American [[peacekeeping]] troops were deployed to Liberia.

August 1, 2003, the Security Council, ([[United Nations Security Council Resolution 1497|Resolution 1497]]) decided on a multinational force in Liberia, to be followed-on by a United Nations stabilization force. ECOWAS sent troops under the banner of '[[ECOMIL]]' to Liberia.<ref name="nytimesnigeria">{{cite news | first=Felicity | last=Barringer | title=Nigeria Readies Peace Force for Liberia; Battles Go On | date=July 24, 2003 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5D6153FF937A15754C0A9659C8B63 | newspaper=The New York Times | access-date=2008-01-18 | archive-date=August 19, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819151302/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/world/nigeria-readies-peace-force-for-liberia-battles-go-on.html | url-status=live }}</ref>  These troops started to arrive in Liberia probably as of August 15. The U.S. provided logistical support.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/07/liberia/| title=Liberia's Taylor not ready to leave| date=July 7, 2003| publisher=cnn.com| access-date=August 19, 2008| archive-date=June 13, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613012359/http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/07/liberia/| url-status=live}}</ref> President Taylor resigned, and flew into exile in Nigeria. Vice-president [[Moses Blah]] replaced Taylor as interim-President.

An ECOWAS-ECOMIL force of 1000 Nigerian troops was airlifted into Liberia on August 15, to halt the occupation of [[Monrovia]] by rebel forces. Meanwhile, U.S. stationed a [[Marine Expeditionary Unit]] with 2300 Marines offshore Liberia.