GIS BEGIN TRAINING COLOMBIAN TROOPS

BOGOTA, Colombia--Eighty-three members of the U.S. Special Forces have
begun training Colombian soldiers at a jungle base as part of a $1.3
billion U.S. aid initiative to help Colombia fight drug trafficking and
left-wing rebels. The U.S. troops are working with members of a Colombian
anti-drug battalion at Larandia military base, Colombian and U.S. officials
said.

The base is located in the Amazon River jungle, only a two-hour drive from
the main stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the
country's main leftist rebel group. The U.S. troops are barred from
accompanying Colombian soldiers into combat. Although the rebels say they
will fight the anti-drug offensive, they have not threatened to attack the
U.S. soldiers directly.

The mission for the U.S.-trained Colombian troops--backed by donated Black
Hawk and Huey combat helicopters--is to seize vast swaths of drug-producing
areas from the rebels and other armed groups, which use drug proceeds to
buy weapons. Airplanes could then destroy coca and poppies, the respective
raw materials of cocaine and heroin, by spraying without risk of being shot
down.