About 50 US Marines flew into Port-au-Prince tonight on a mission to protect the US Embassy and other US facilities in Haiti after an armed revolt against the president gathered steam.
The Marines arrived at Port-au-Prince airport in a Hercules C-130 transport plane, witnesses said.
The US military's Miami-based Southern Command said in a statement earlier that a Fleet Anti-Terrorism Support Team of about 50 Marines was traveling from Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia.
The team was to "conduct security operations for a handful of US facilities" in Port-au-Prince, Southern Command said.
An armed revolt to unseat President Jean-Bertrand Aristide intensified yesterday when rebels took control of the second-largest city and vowed to move on the rest of the country.
Washington evacuated its non-emergency staff and family members from the embassy in the capital over the weekend.
As thousands of looters rampaged through Cap-Haitien yesterday, rebel leader Guy Philippe predicted a quick victory over Aristide's partisans, who sought to block any advance by erecting flaming barricades on the highway into the capital, Port-au-Prince, from the north.
"I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti," Mr Philippe said at a Cap-Haitien hotel as he drank from a bottle of beer.
Sources close to the government said several Cabinet ministers in Port-au-Prince were asking friends for places to hide in case the capital is attacked.
After rebels drove government troops from Cap-Haitien, a city of some 500,000 on Haiti's north coast, thousands of people went on a looting spree.
The takeover of Cap-Haitien by some 200 fighters was the most significant advance by Aristide opponents since the uprising began. At least 15 people died in the fighting.
The two-pronged rebel assault engulfed key points in the city. The police station was burned, then looted, as was a pro-Aristide radio station. Thousands of people rushed to the port and carted off goods.
Residents also defaced posters of Aristide, who was wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990 but lost support since flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
PA