By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 22 -- Colombian rebels acknowledged today that they were holding three Americans whose plane crashed more than a week ago in the
country's southern jungle, and called on the Colombian armed forces to halt military operations in the area to ensure the hostages' safety.

The statement by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist insurgency regarded by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was the first
official confirmation that the Americans were in guerrilla hands.

The FARC, as the 18,000-member rebel group is known, claimed to have shot down the plane and called the hostages employees of the Central Intelligence
Agency on a counter-guerrilla spy mission. Those claims have been denied by Colombian and U.S. officials, who say the men were working as Pentagon contractors
on an anti-drug operation when the plane's engine quit over rebel territory.

"The life and the physical integrity of the three gringo officials in our power, we will only be able to guarantee if the Colombian army immediately suspends military
operations as well as overflights," said the one-page statement that was posted today on the FARC's Web site.

By requesting a military pullback from the mountainous region, the guerrillas seemed to indicate that the large search operation involving nearly 3,000 Colombian
troops and U.S. intelligence support was squeezing the rebels as they seek refuge with their captives in the vast southern jungle.

The kidnapping is the first time in more than two decades that an American on government business has been taken hostage in Colombia, where the United States is
supplying the government with $470 million a year in mostly military assistance. A former rebel group known as the M-19 held the U.S. ambassador and dozens of
other diplomats hostage for 61 days in 1980 after seizing the Dominican Embassy in Bogota.

President Bush ordered an additional 150 Special Forces troops to Colombia this week, bringing the total above the 400-troop limit set by Congress in 2000 when
it approved a $1.3 billion aid package known as Plan Colombia. The counter-narcotics package, including more than 80 transport helicopters for the Colombian
armed forces, was recently shifted to allow it to be used directly against the guerrillas.

Bush has the legal authority to exceed the troop limit "to carry out emergency evacuation of U.S. citizens or any search-and-rescue operation for U.S. military
personnel or U.S. citizens," according to the legislation. Administration officials say the number of military personnel in Colombia is now 411.

The single-engine Cessna 208 crashed on Feb. 13 in the southern province of Caqueta minutes before it was scheduled to land at the provincial capital, Florencia.
The plane was carrying four Americans, who officials have said were Defense Department contractors, and a Colombian military intelligence officer.

The pilot radioed the tower to report engine trouble before the crash about 220 miles south of the capital, Bogota. The body of one American, a former military
officer, and the Colombian were found with bullet wounds to the head and chest.

The men were apparently photographing coca fields for tracking and targeting purposes. The FARC derives much of its war financing from protecting coca fields
and has declared U.S. officials to be legitimate targets in its 39-year war against the Colombian state.

In its statement today, the FARC specified a cluster of eight towns that it demanded the Colombian military clear of troops and aircraft to ensure the Americans'
safety. The region is roughly a triangle, about 100 square miles in area, bounded by Florencia to the south, Puerto Rico to the northeast, and the eastern range of the
Andes to the west.

Despite the warning, Colombian military officials said the search would not cease. "This is a permanent state of war down here," said a Colombian army officer in
Larandia, a large military installation 240 miles south of Bogota. "We're not stopping for a moment."

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