Colombian FARC guerrillas are holding 3 CIA agents, who were captured on

February 13th, after their Cessna spy plane was shot down in the Florencia

municipality in the southern Colombian department of Caqueta.

The rebels confirmed the capture of the US agents in a communique signed

by the Secretariat of the Central Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces

of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) last Friday. It is seen as one of the

most significant recent setbacks for the US forces supporting extremist

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia's civil war.

The plane was carrying out counterinsurgency spy operations when it was

downed and two of the five-member crew killed: Colombian Army Sargeant

Luis Alcides Cruz and former US military officer Jennis Thomas who had

been contracted by the CIA.

Colombian authorities have claimed that the two men were executed, but

local campesino eyewitnesses told Colombian daily El Espectador, that the

two soldiers were killed during a firefight with the guerrillas after the

shootdown.

According to Miami Herald, US officials have confirmed that the plane's US

crew members were indeed carrying out military-related electronic

intelligence gathering.

FARC and combined US and Colombian military forces have clashed repeatedly

in the area after the capture of the CIA agents. In the communique

released by the FARC, the rebels urge the US and Colombian soldiers in the

area to hold their fire in order to be able to guarantee the safety of the

captured spies.

"We can only guarantee the life and physical integrity of the three gringo

officers in our power if the Colombian army immediately suspends the

military operations, as well as the overflights, in the area of Santana de

las Hermosas, San Antonio de Atenas, San Pacho, San Guillermo, Ano Nuevo,

la Esperanza, el Para and Norcasia," the statement said.

The White House has responded to the military setback by ordering an

additional 150 US troops from the Special Forces to help with

"intelligence and logistical assistance" in the "search and rescue"

operations for the captured crew members of the spy plane.

On the same day the CIA plane was downed the US House and Senate approved

the a new federal bill allocating $773 million in funds for the Andean

region for 2003, an increase of more than $100 million over last year.

The aid is overwhelmingly military and includes $88 million to protect an

oil pipeline operated by US-based Occidental Petroleum in eastern Colombia

from rebel attacks.