Troops kill FARC rebels holding US personnel

US-TRAINED Colombian troops closed in on Marxist FARC guerrillas holding three US Defence Department contractors, killing three of the rebels yesterday, the army said.

“There is very heavy fighting with the FARC. According to intelligence reports, we know that it is the same guerrilla column that kidnapped the three Americans,” said a Colombian army officer.

Troops from a US-trained anti-drug battalion killed the three rebels and retrieved their bodies. The troops are part of a 4,000-strong force hunting for the Americans who were seized when their light aircraft crashed in southern Colombia on February 13.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish initials FARC, said on Saturday it had the Americans, calling them “CIA agents” sent to spy on them.

The rebels said the rescue operation should be called off or the Americans’ lives would be in danger.

The US government demands the release of the three men, who it says were civilians working on a Defence Department contract.

Colombian officials say they were on a routine mission to find illegal coca, the raw material for cocaine, when their Cessna aircraft’s single engine failed. They were forced to crash land in the jungle province of Caqueta.

Local peasants said they saw the guerrillas fatally shoot an American and a Colombian army sergeant who had been aboard before taking away the other three.

The FARC, which has long regarded US personnel supporting Colombia’s anti-cocaine war as military targets but had never before killed or kidnapped any, says it shot down the plane.

US officials have said that Washington could strike the FARC militarily for the first time. After the hostages were taken, US President George W Bush sent 150 extra US troops to Colombia to support the rescue operation.

The United States has spent about $2 billion in recent years in mainly military aid for Colombia’s offensive against cocaine, and recently lifted restrictions stopping the Colombians using that aid against guerrillas.

There are several hundred US military personnel, including a detachment of special forces, in Colombia, but they are limited to providing intelligence and training and are not allowed to take part in combat.

The FARC, believed to about 20,000 strong, is the largest illegal armed group fighting in the country, and draws its money from “taxing” cocaine producers and kidnapping for ransom.