The Colombian authorities say they have rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by rebels in Colombia.

Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, has been held for more than Abducted Frenchman in Afghanistan released ...
Wanted Colombian rebel leader hands herself in ...
Top Farc commander surrenders ...
Chavez urges Colombia's FARC rebels to release all civilian hostages ...
Taleban accuse Sarkozy of U-turn ... six years by the rebel Farc group and is said to be in very poor health.

She is the group's highest-profile hostage and the French government has made securing her release a priority.

The Farc group has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government for more than 40 years.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said no-one had been hurt in Wednesday's operation in the south-western province of Guaviare and that the hostages were in relatively good health.

The Associated Press news agency quotes Ms Betancourt's son as describing her release as the "most beautiful news of my life".

Government success

The Colombian military said some 15 hostages had been rescued in total, among them 11 members of the Colombian security forces.

The three Americans rescued were defence department contract workers captured after their light aircraft crashed in the Colombian jungle in 2003, the Colombian military said.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Medellin says the successful operation by Colombian security forces will be seen as a coup for the country's government.

As such, it will relieve the pressure on President Alvaro Uribe to negotiate with the Farc - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - allowing him to continue with his US-backed military offensive against the group, our correspondent says.

The news of Ms Betancourt's rescue will also be welcomed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made securing her release a foreign policy priority.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner travelled to Latin America earlier this year to build ties with regional leaders who have been influential in securing hostage releases from Farc in the past.

Ms Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002.

She is believed to suffer from serious liver problems and was pictured looking frail in a recent video.

(BBC)

<< Back