ARMY DRIVES DEEP INTO FORMER REBEL HAVEN

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's military pushed deeper into a former rebel
safe haven Tuesday as guerrillas intensified sabotage attacks and
kidnappings. The mayor of a town just outside the zone said he was the
target of a failed assassination attempt by rebels.

Puerto Rico Mayor Walter Castro said two of his bodyguards were shot to
death in the attack as he left the town's church. Puerto Rico's two
previous mayors were killed by rebels.

Five other people died in separate attacks around the country blamed on the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Four police officers and a
child were killed in an ambush and an attack on a small town. Two people
were kidnapped at a FARC roadblock, army officials said.

Witnesses reported FARC rebels also killed seven civilians over the weekend
in the town of La Macarena as the guerrillas retreated ahead of an army
advance.

Troops moving to retake the former rebel enclave reached La Macarena, a
dusty outpost, for the first time Tuesday and were investigating the
reported killings, army spokesman Capt. Jorge Florez said.

Rebels, meanwhile, kept up a bombing campaign against bridges and power
stations begun last week after President Andres Pastrana ended the peace
process and launched the military offensive to retake the zone. The
president ceded the area, a Switzerland-size swath of southern ranchland
and woods, three years ago in hopes the rebels would end their 38-year war.

The government offensive was launched after Pastrana canceled the peace
process when a popular senator was taken hostage after an airliner hijacking.

Pastrana has asked the United States to lift restrictions that allow him to
use U.S. military assistance only in the fight against drugs. He hopes to
win approval to use helicopters and other U.S.-donated equipment against
the FARC.

Fleischer said the United States has legal constraints but is trying to
determine "where we can be helpful, how we can be helpful."