WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuter) Antidrug U.S. ground troops have been quietly
withdrawn from the U.S.Mexican border following a marine shooting of an
18yearold shepherd in May, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

``The Secretary of Defence has temporarily withdrawn authorisation for
military counterdrug ground reconnaissance and groundbased detection,
monitoring and communications missions by U.S. armed forces along the U.S.
southwestern border,'' the Defence Department said.

Secretary William Cohen issued the order on Thursday, but withheld any
announcement in an effort to play down the move, Army Col. Dick Bridges, a
senior Pentagon spokesman said.

He said the Pentagon wanted to avoid giving the appearance of interfering in
court proceedings in the shooting case. A grand jury is considering whether
to indict one or more of the marines involved in the shooting in Redford, a
Texas town southeast of El Paso where the 18yearold was killed.

U.S. military ground operations along the border near Redford were suspended
earlier this month pending revision of the mission's standard operating
procedures, Bridges said. The withdrawal, reported first by the Wall Street
Journal, is indefinite, Bridges said.

The withdrawal involves all of the 240 or so U.S. troops typically involved
in groundbased reconnaissance, monitoring and communications missions along
the 2,000mile (3,200 km) border, Bridges said.

He said the policy review was considering new rules for military interaction
with both civilians and civilian law enforcement personnel.

The Pentagon essentially was planning to draw up a kind of ``Status of Forces
Agreement,'' the same sort of rules of the road it negotiates with foreign
governments before deploying U.S. troops abroad.

In this case, the Defence Department would submit its proposed revised
procedures to the authorities of the southwestern states where military
troops are involved in antidrug efforts Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and
California, the spokesman said.

12:11 072997