MONROVIA, Liberia ? Heavy explosions and machine-gun fire shook Liberia’s war-battered capital Saturday as rebels punched into the city, sending tens of thousands of panicked residents and weary fighters streaming downtown.

Many more civilians surged toward the fighting waving leafy branches and demanding an end to more than a decade of turmoil.

Warlord-turned-President Charles Taylor vowed to “fight street-to-street, house-to-house” until the rebels were defeated.

“I will never desert the city, I will never desert my people,” he told The Associated Press. “I will stand and fight to the last man until they stop killing my own people.”

Cupping three bullets in his hand and wearing a gray safari jacket, Taylor spoke to the AP on the balcony of his executive mansion overlooking the sea.

He repeated his pledge to step down and accept asylum in Nigeria, but only after international peacekeepers arrive in sufficient numbers.

The rebel assault — the third against Monrovia since last month — shattered hopes that a speedy deployment of international peacekeepers could avert fresh bloodshed in a country where hundreds of thousands have died in two savage civil wars.

As the battle intensified, fierce fighting broke out on the two bridges leading into downtown Monrovia and the port area.

A French news photographer, Patrick Robert, was shot in the chest and arm covering fighting at one of the bridges. Robert, who was on assignment for Time magazine, suffered life-threatening injuries and was being treated at an International Committee of the Red Cross trauma unit in Monrovia.

A young boy looks back as government soldiers fire shots in the air to turn back a peace demonstration. The crowd tried to advance to rebel positions to

Rebel officials, in nearby Ghana for peace talks, said government forces provoked them into fighting.

U.S. Ambassador to Liberia John W. Blaney urged the rebels not to advance farther into Monrovia and to refocus on the Ghana talks. He also urged rebels to avoid reprisals and appealed to all sides to cease fire.

Furious residents demanded to know what was keeping a long-promised peacekeeping force they hoped would be led by Americans.

President Bush has repeatedly promised to support West African nations who plan to send 1,500 soldiers to enforce an often-violated June 17 cease-fire. But he says he is still deciding whether to send troops to the country founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

Bush has tied any deployment of American troops to Taylor’s departure.