COLOMBIAN FARC REBELS FIRED ON U.S. HELICOPTER

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Marxist guerrillas fired on a U.S. government
helicopter involved in an anti-drug mission in Colombia and five Colombian
policemen were killed in a subsequent rescue operation, police said on
Wednesday. The incident took place last Friday when a State Department
UH-1N helicopter, piloted by a civilian contractor, came under machine-gun
fire from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and was forced
to make an emergency landing, Colombia's anti-drug police chief Gen.
Gustavo Socha said. The pilot, a Peruvian citizen who works for DynCorp, a
Pentagon contractor hired in the U.S.-funded war against drugs in Colombia,
was evacuated unhurt along with the rest of the crew. However, five
Colombian police officers sent to rescue the helicopter were killed in a
fierce battle with some 300 heavily-armed FARC rebels, Socha said. A
Colombian warplane then destroyed the helicopter with bombs to prevent it
from falling into rebel hands, he said. A U.S. embassy official said the
helicopter had made an emergency landing near a FARC safe haven in southern
Colombia. He said no American citizens were on board.

The official did not confirm that the aircraft had come under fire and said
only that it had had "technical problems". The helicopter was escorting
crop dusters spraying herbicide on coca crops, used to produce cocaine.
Based in Reston, Virginia, DynCorp has over 300 employees in Colombia,
including many Americans and citizens of Peru and Central American countries.

The company provides crop duster and helicopter pilots, mechanics and
paramedics in President Andres Pastrana's U.S.-funded anti-cocaine "Plan
Colombia". "The helicopter was hit during an attack by the FARC. A failure
in its hydraulic system forced it to make an emergency landing," Socha told
Reuters. The incident, which the official in the U.S. embassy said occurred
during a "routine eradication mission," highlights the dangers of U.S.
companies and citizens getting involved in Colombia's drug war. MILITARY
TARGETS The 17,000-member FARC has declared U.S. civilian "mercenaries" in
the war on drugs to be military targets. Last February, another State
Department helicopter carrying U.S. DynCorp employees was fired upon by
FARC rebels during an operation to rescue a Colombian police helicopter. No
one was killed. The United States is pouring in more than $1 billion in
mainly military aid to help Pastrana wipe out drug production in Colombia,
which is gripped by a 38-year old war increasingly funded by the cocaine
trade. The aid, which includes the delivery of Black Hawk helicopters and
training of anti-narcotics police, is restricted so far to the war on
cocaine and heroin production. Some voices on Capitol Hill are pressing for
Washington to accede to Colombia's request to be allowed to use the aid for
counter-insurgency operations as well. On Thursday, four government
security agents and six FARC rebels were killed when the guerrillas
ambushed policemen in southwestern Colombia even as government and rebel
negotiators met to start negotiating a cease-fire accord by April 7. The
rebels agreed on Sunday to negotiate a cease-fire -- hours before a
government deadline expired.

It was hailed as the most significant achievement in three years of
tortuous peace talks aimed at ending a war that has claimed 40,000 lives in
the past decade. The rebels, who traditionally accompany military activity
with peace gestures in the drawn-out negotiations to wrest concessions,
also blew up two electrical towers near the capital Bogota on Wednesday.