DRUG WAR OFFENSIVE AIRCRAFT EXPOSED TO HOSTILE FIRE FROM REBELS IN COLOMBIA

CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) - Pilots contracted by the U.S. government are facing
immense challenges and hazards as they fumigate drug crops at
ground-hugging altitudes in their latest offensive in eastern Colombia.

But the pilots' missions are made even dicier because they are flying
beyond areas cleared of rebels by army troops, two senior Colombian army
commanders told The Associated Press.

The practice, which they say exposes pilots to hostile fire, goes against
tactics normally used in the anti-drug campaign - and may have already cost
one contractor his life.

Mario Alvarado, a native of Costa Rica who worked for an unidentified U.S.
company, was killed Sunday when his airplane crashed while fumigating coca
crops in the rebel stronghold of Catatumbo.

The U.S. State Department said the airplane apparently "was struck by
hostile ground fire." Government troops were in Catatumbo, but nowhere near
the pilot's route.

"Where the planes sprayed on Sunday, the troops weren't there. They were a
five-minute helicopter ride away, or several days travel by foot," said
Gen. Jorge Pineda, commander of the Fifth Brigade, based in the sprawling,
red-brick town of Cucuta, the staging area for the offensive.

President Alvaro Uribe has vowed to wipe out cocaine production in
Colombia, the world's main supplier. The fumigation campaign has cut coca
cultivation in the country by one-third in only seven months, the United
Nations reported last week.

Operations between the ground forces and the spray planes are normally
coordinated, so the low-flying crop dusters do not wander over areas rife
with guerrillas.

But the Colombian commanders said in interviews that in the new offensive -
now called Operation Catatumbo after previously being dubbed Operation
Holocaust - standard practices seem to have been ditched as ground troops
move more slowly over the steep mountainsides, which are often wreathed in
clouds.

Gen. Arturo Suarez, commander of the elite U.S.-trained Counter-Narcotics
Brigade, said the Catatumbo region - located in the far northern reaches of
the Andes near the Venezuelan border - was much tougher to operate in than
other areas.

"It's very slow, very difficult, very thick with jungle," he said.

Leftist rebels control much of Colombia's cocaine production and are quick
on the trigger when they spot one of the low-flying spray planes.

Suarez, whose brigade was trained by U.S. special forces and equipped with
dozens of U.S. helicopters specifically to protect the fumigation planes,
said the pilots were jeopardizing their lives by fumigating unsecured areas.

"If they go in areas where we're not present, then they're running a grave
risk," he said.

Jim Foster, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said he was unaware of any
operational changes. "I haven't heard that the planes are in one place and
the troops are in another," he said.

Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert with the Washington-based Center for
International Policy, wondered if authorities are sacrificing the pilots'
margin of safety for expediency.

"The officials need to cut costs and show results, but they're really
putting these guys on the edge and not giving them the cover they need,"
Isacson said.

Which company, exactly, is flying the State Department planes in Catatumbo
is a mystery. AP journalists have seen several of the blue twin-engine
OV-10s sitting unattended in a far section of Cucuta's airport.

DynCorp, based in Reston, Va., is contracted by the State Department to fly
the fumigation missions but has subcontracted out the Catatumbo offensive
to another U.S. firm, said DynCorp spokesman Chuck Wilkins. He refused to
name the company.

Wilkins referred all requests for information about operational changes to
Washington. The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.