REBELS USE BOMBS TO LEVEL TOWN AT LEAST 12 DIE

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A picturesque mountain town lay in ruins today
after rebels detonated bombs in front of a church, a bank, a clinic, and
other buildings, killing 12.

Arboleda, 90 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota looked as if it had
been hit by a major earthquake.

Colombian troops searching through the rubble after a two-day attack by
hundreds of rebels found the bodies of at least eight police officers, part
of an estimated 25-member contingent that tried to fight off the attack.
Four civilians, including the wife of a policeman, were dead.

Security forces that arrived Sunday night aboard US-built combat
helicopters swept through the green hills outside the town searching for
the missing policeman.

A resident, identified only as Duvan, told Caraco radio that hundreds of
heavily-armed rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, arrived
in Arboleda on Saturday.

The killings of 13 Colombian police officers who surrendered to guerrillas
last month had prompted the chairman of the House International Relations
Committee, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, (R, N.Y.) to write to Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, expressing concern that U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in
Colombia weren't used to assist the policeman.

Whether they could have been used has raised delicate questions following
the approval of a $1.3 billion Colombian anti-narcotics aid package. Can
U.S.-provided anti-drug heliocopters be used for missions that aren't
directly related to drugs? And if so, could that push the United States
deeper into Colombia's civil war?

Colombian National Police Chief Ernesto Gilbert said helicopters hadn't
been deployed because they weren't equipped to fly at night.

A U.S. Official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. policy
allows Colombia to use the heliocopters "for humanitarian purposes to
prevent a loss of life and to provide evacuation."