Many civilians were killed and villages torched in a massacre in Nimba county northeast of Monrovia, a senior Liberian military official told AFP. "I have received a report from our security officers that many villages there had burned down and that there have been lots of massacres," said General Benjamin Yeaten, deputy head of the government army. "My understanding is that there was a massacre but we are not exactly sure how many people have been killed, it could be a hundred, it could be a thousand," he added, without saying who the perpetrators were. He did say that the two main rebel groups in the country, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), had carried out attacks in Nimba in recent days. Citing a witness who had fled the assault at Bahn, in Nimba, 250 kilometres (150 miles) northeast of the capital Monrovia, local public radio reported that MODEL rebels had stormed the town, opening fire on the local population before disappearing back into the surrounding forest. The attack left a thousand people dead, the witness said. "Our information is sketchy. We know there are fightings in the area, both LURD and MODEL. LURD is fighting in Bong county and MODEL fighting in Nimba, so it's difficult to know who is who," said information minister Reginald Goodridge. There has been sporadic fighting since the government, MODEL and LURD signed an accord on August 18 to put an end to 14 years of nearly uninterrupted civil war in Liberia. Thousands of Liberians fled fighting south of Monrovia Sunday after reports of skirmishes between rebels and government forces. Ross Mountain, the UN special humanitarian coordinator in Liberia, said up to 10,000 people were on the move after reports of fighting near Harbel, 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Monrovia on the road to Buchanan. Buchanan, the country's second port city, has been under the control of Liberia's second rebel group MODEL, since the end of July. Meanwhile, the main rebel group LURD urged the international community to put pressure on troops still loyal to exiled president Taylor to pull out of Monrovia to allow humanitarian agencies to work in the capital. LURD also accused the government fighters of violating a ceasefire agreement by allegedly infiltrating the lines of peacekeepers and arresting LURD soldiers. Taylor stepped down earlier this month and agreed to leave the country for exile in Nigeria, bowing to international pressure. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Young fighters of the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). (AFP/Issouf Sanogo)