US GOVT AGENTS IN COLOMBIAN GUN BATTLE

United States Government agents have fought a gun battle with Colombian
guerrillas at the same time as Washington tries to play down its military
involvement in the war on drugs.

Helicopter gunships, piloted by Americans, fired on rebel ground positions
to protect fellow Americans who were helping to rescue crewmen from a
police helicopter, shot down by guerrillas in southern Colombia.

The armed US civilians employed under a State Department contract, are part
of Washington's $1.6 billion contribution to "Plan Colombia" - a drug
eradication program.

The involvement of armed US personnel in Colombia's drug war does not
constitute military involvement, according to the State Department.

But with the US enlarging its military base in neighbouring Ecuador to
increase daily surveillance flights over Colombia, critics say denial of
military involvement is an exercise in semantics.