U.S. HALTS AID TO COLOMBIA AIR FORCE UNIT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The United States has cut off aid to a Colombian
Air Force unit suspected in the killing of 17 civilians more than four
years ago, a U.S. official said.

A squadron of the First Aerial Command Unit was fighting rebels near Santo
Domingo town in December 1998 when a bomb killed the civilians. The Air
Force has said it was a rebel car bomb, but FBI forensic analysis concluded
the shrapnel was ``consistent with'' a fragmentation bomb meant to be
dropped from the air. Residents of Santo Domingo insist they were bombed
from the air.

The State Department decided to revoke the human rights certification of
the First Aerial Command Unit, a U.S. official said Monday on condition of
anonymity.

The decertification means the unit can no longer receive U.S. aid or buy
American munitions. It was not clear how much aid the unit had received.

Phil Chicola, the State Department's director of Andean affairs, told RCN
television Monday that the U.S. government wants the Colombia to conclude
its long investigation into the case.

``We are not convinced that the story that the air force has told so far is
correct,'' Chicola said. ``We are not asking for anyone's head. We are not
asking for anything more than a clear and transparent investigation.''

Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said her government was
actively investigating the case.

Air Force commander Gen. Hector Velasco could not be reached for comment.

In October, the Colombian Inspector General's office called for a pilot and
a crewman to be suspended for three months for the bombing. The attorney
general's office and the military are conducting separate investigations.

The United States has given Colombia almost $2 billion in the past three
years, mostly in military aid. Very little of that aid has gone to the
First Aerial Command, Colombia's most elite air command.

Three U.S. citizens have been accused of pinpointing the targets for the
bombing during a battle. One of the pilots was apparently an active-duty
member of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard has confirmed. The men had
been working for a Florida-based company that provided aircraft services to
oil companies in the region. They are not currently in Colombia.