Haiti rebels set sights on rest of country

Rebels set their sights on the rest of Haiti yesterday after swooping in to take the country's second-largest city in an escalation of a bloody rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, prompting the United States to send in Marines to protect its embassy.

With the rebels now in control of Cap Haitien and determined to move on, Washington was sending about 50 US Marines to to protect its embassy in the capital of Port-au-Prince, a US official said yesterday.

France, the former colonial power in the poorest country in the Americas, joined several other foreign governments and told its citizens to leave the country, wracked by violence that has killed more than 50 people since the revolt began on Feb. 5.

Seizing their biggest prize so far, a ski-masked-clad rebel force of about 200 overran the northern city of Cap Haitien, a city of about 500,000, on Sunday, putting anti-Aristide forces in control of much of the north.