U.S. CIVILIANS COME UNDER FIRE IN COLOMBIA ANTI-DRUG MISSION

BOGOTA, Colombia - American anti-drug workers braved rebel gunfire to help
rescue the crew of a downed Colombian police helicopter during an anti-drug
mission, police and a U.S. official confirmed yesterday.

The rescue Sunday illustrated the role and risks of American civilians in
Washington's expanding involvement in the drug war here.

It was the first of four police helicopters on counternarcotics missions
disabled by rebel gunfire in the past four days, reflecting the increased
peril as Colombia steps up its 2-month-old campaign to spray herbicides on
coca fields. A $1.3 billion U.S. aid package is paying for many of the
helicopters.

The rescue team, U.S. citizens contracted by the State Department, flew by
helicopter into a firefight in the southern state of Caquera and pulled out
the downed helicopter's co-pilot, a flight technician and the door gunner,
said Col. Carlos Rivera, air-operations chief for the Colombian National
Police.

His account was confirmed by a U.S. official who requested anonymity.

As the American helicopter prepared to assist, a Colombian police
helicopter gunship picked up the pilot of the downed helicopter, who had
made an emergency landing after being shot in the leg by guerrillas.

The fighting that put American citizens in the front lines of Colombia's
37-year-old war came days after officials had declared the operation's
first month a rousing success and said there had been surprisingly little
resistance. The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a
right-wing paramilitary group in the cocaine-producing regions make huge
profits in protection payments from the drug trade.

Two other helicopters firing at FARC positions during Sunday's rescue were
also flown by private American contract pilots, said Colombian police Capt.
Luis Fernando Aristizabal, the co-pilot of one of the helicopters.

The Americans on the search-and-rescue team are employed by DynCorp, a
Reston, Va.-based contractor hired by the State Department, Rivera said.
Company officials declined to comment.

The exact number of Americans on the rescue helicopter was not immediately
clear. Several Colombians were also aboard, including a door gunner and
co-pilot. The U.S. official said Americans are not permitted to man the
helicopters' weapons.

In Sunday's mission, six helicopters escorted four planes from Larandia
military base in Caquera that sprayed coca fields near the town of Curillo.
U.S. special-forces troops are training Colombian army counternarcotics
soldiers at Larandia under the U.S. aid package.

The helicopters came under rebel fire in Curillo, 240 miles southwest of
Bogota.

After the first pilot was shot and landed, the five other helicopters moved
in and began shooting at rebel positions, Aristizabal said.

He said the helicopter carrying the Americans hovered inches above the
ground while the remaining Colombian crew of the downed helicopter rushed
aboard. The guerrillas "were very close," Aristizabal said.

Rivera said a search-and-rescue helicopter piloted by a DynCorp employee
always accompanies the missions, in which DynCorp pilots also often fly the
OV-10 aircraft that drop the herbicide.

The search-and-rescue helicopters typically fly high above the spraying
planes and the escort helicopters, getting involved if necessary. They
carry stretchers, oxygen, chain saws and medicine, Rivera said.

U.S.-contracted pilots have been shot at before in Colombia, and several
have died in crashes. But Sunday's fighting was the first known case of
Americans coming under fire since the huge aid package was approved.

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota has said eight spray planes and escort
helicopters were hit by "hostile ground fire" in six separate incidents
during spraying operations in December and January. It was unclear whether
Americans were on any of those aircraft.

Colombia's national ombudsman has issued a stinging critique, meanwhile, of
the drug-crop eradication campaign, saying that "indiscriminate" herbicide
spraying had wiped out food crops across southern Colombia.

Human-rights ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes called for an immediate halt to
the herbicide spraying, saying the U.S.-supplied technology being used was
not distinguishing between legal and illegal cultivation.