BODIES OF FIVE AMERICANS REMOVED FROM RECON PLANE

COLOMBIA - Rescuers reached the wreckage of a U.S. reconnaissance plane
that crashed into a mountain in southern Colombia and began removing the
bodies of five U.S. soldiers and two Colombians yesterday.

The American troops, including a female soldier, two captains and a warrant
officer all from Fort Bliss, Texas, were believed to be the first American
soldiers killed in Colombia's U.S.-backed drug war. The deaths seemed
unlikely to undermine Washington's resolve to fight spiraling cocaine and
heroin production in this Andean nation.

The De Havilland RC-7 reconnaissance plane disappeared from radar screens
before dawn Friday while on an anti-drug mission over rebel-occupied
territories.

There was no suggestion the aircraft came under attack from Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, who have a base in the region
and are fiercely opposed to U.S. policy.

The FARC, and some independent political analysts, have accused the United
States of meddling in counterinsurgency operations under the pretext of
fighting the drug war.