COLOMBIAN REBELS BLAST ANTI-DRUG BASE

BOGOTA --- A 500-strong rebel force killed at least 30 security officers in
a raid on an anti-drug base in southeast Colombia, taking the death toll in
a nationwide guerrilla offensive to more than 100, the police reported
Wednesday.

About 50 policemen and soldiers were wounded, and military sources said
that more than 100 might have been killed or taken prisoner in the assault
on the base in the town of Miraflores.

The raid this week was the worst of more than 40 coordinated attacks in
more than half of Colombia's 32 provinces.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation
Army, Latin America's oldest and largest rebel groups, appear to have timed
the strikes as a show of strength before President-elect Andres Pastrana
takes office Friday.

An unofficial military source said he believed a group of U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration agents had been in Miraflores, but a spokesman
at another anti-drug base in the provincial capital of San Jose denied the
report.

"All the U.S. personnel are safe here in San Jose," he said. "There were
none in Miraflores."