U.S.-DONATED COLOMBIAN HELICOPTER CRASHES, SIX DEAD

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A Colombian military UH1N helicopter, donated
by the United States for the war on drugs, crashed into
guerrilla-controlled mountains on Friday, killing six of the seven crew
members on board, the army said.

Gen. Luis Favio Garcia blamed the crash on "adverse meteorological
conditions," but offered no details.

The helicopter was in route to pick up wounded troops when it crashed about
250 miles (400 km) southeast of the capital Bogota, near the town of
Solita, in Caqueta province.

The area is a stronghold of Latin America's largest guerrilla army, the
17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The army
clashed with a rebel fighters on Thursday near the crash site. FARC is
fighting a 38-year-old guerrilla war, fueled in part by money from the
cocaine trade, which claims 3,500 lives a year.

Rescue workers found one soldier alive at the crash site, and said he had
been transferred to a nearby hospital but would not reveal details on his
condition.