Troops move in after overnight bombing

                      BY FRANCES ROBLES

                      BOGOTA - The Colombian armed forces Thursday launched an air and ground invasion to regain the 16,000-square mile
                      former safe zone that the government had granted to the country's largest insurgent force in an ultimately unsuccessful
                      effort to end nearly 40 years of fighting.

                      The ground assault began about 12 hours after the air force spent the night using Israeli jet fighters to drop bombs,
                      destroying 85 rebel installations, the military said. There were no immediate reports of combat casualties.

                      President Andrés Pastrana, who had staked his presidency on efforts to conclude a peace treaty with the rebels of the
                      Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), abruptly suspended the talks Wednesday night after
                      a wave of rebel violence that culminated in the hijacking of a domestic airline flight and the kidnapping
                      of a senator aboard the plane. Other passengers and crew members were released.

                      The military reported it conducted more than 200 missions in the region of San Vicente del Caguán,
                      inside the rebel stronghold, destroying a variety of military sites and support facilities including jungle
                      airstrips.

                      ''We've destroyed camps, installations, repair shops, auto-parts warehouses and places where they
                      had hidden a lot of cocaine,'' Gen. Héctor Fabio Velazco Chávez said.

                      The military deployed about 13,000 members of the armed forces from Vargas, Neiva, Florencia and
                      Cundinamarca provinces to surround the rebel zone. Of those, 3,000 were army soldiers who began a
                      ground advance Thursday afternoon, the president's office announced. The air force said it was using
                      Israeli jet fighters, U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, OV-10 spotter airplanes and other aircraft.

                      The mission, dubbed ''Tanatos'' -- Greek for ''death'' -- was coordinated from the Three Corners military
                      base in Caquetá, south of the zone, and the Apiai base in Meta, just to the east.

                      Pastrana had granted the FARC a huge portion of land -- a third the size of Florida -- as a gesture of
                      peace. But the land wound up as a headquarters for kidnapping, drug-running and the storage of
                      weapons, Pastrana said. Arguing that the country had been tricked by terrorists, he ordered military
                      strikes to begin at midnight Wednesday to pummel the rebels.

                      REBELS FLEE

                      The military was working under the assumption that few FARC members remained inside the zone,
                      according to an army officer who requested anonymity. The officer said military advisors believe the
                      FARC not only had enough warning, but had likely fled days earlier in anticipation of the cessation of
                      negotiations.

                      ''They're not chumps,'' the military officer said. ``It's very likely the leaders are not there.''

                      The army last knew FARC leader Raúl Reyes, a spokesman and peace negotiator, was in the zone
                      Wednesday afternoon, but then lost track of him, the source said.

                      ''Remember, these people have planes -- they have airstrips and roads that they built,'' the officer said.
                      ``We don't think they are sitting there waiting for us. But if we find them, there will be combat.''

                      POLICE DEPLOY

                      The Colombian National Police deployed 800 officers to the zone to retake police stations and urban
                      centers, the source said. The military was preparing to encounter mines, traps and car bombs set by
                      the FARC.

                      FARC officials could not be reached for comment. Telephone lines to their headquarters were cut off
                      Wednesday night shortly after Pastrana's speech. The group's web site included no communiques.

                      FARC spokesman Marco Calarca told CNN in Spanish that the strikes were premature and violated the
                      terms of the peace talks, particularly because no one in the government ever bothered to ask whether
                      the FARC was responsible for the kidnapping of Sen. Jorge Gechen Turbay, who was aboard the
                      hijacked airplane.

                      ''Never mind that they didn't ask the FARC,'' Calarca said. ``There are mechanisms created within the
                      dialogue to resolve these kinds of situations, with the understanding that dialogue should not be
                      suspended.''

                      REBELS OUTNUMBERED

                      The FARC was formed in 1966 by peasants and leftist intellectuals fed up with poverty and lack of
                      power sharing. It is headed by Manuel ''Sureshot'' Marulanda, now in his 70s. The estimated 17,500
                      troops who fight under the FARC banner are believed to possess sophisticated weaponry and
                      communication systems financed by Colombia's drug trade. By contrast, the Colombian armed forces
                      consist of 54,000 military personnel.

                      Soldiers en route to the zone told The Herald that access was hindered because rebels had set up
                      roadblocks.

                      Officials urged the 100,000 people who live in the five cities inside the zone to remain calm and have
                      faith in the operations.

                      ''We are not going to do any harm,'' Velazco said in a statement to the public. ``Have trust in air force
                      men and everyone in the armed forces. From here on, things are going to change. The country can
                      have faith that we will go after guerrillas, confront them and apprehend them.''

                      ATTACKS POPULAR

                      The military strikes were widely popular in Colombia, where Pastrana had been criticized for being too
                      weak against the FARC. The U.S. State Department, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and
                      Organization of American States President César Gaviria all offered support. Gaviria is a former
                      president of Colombia.

                      There was no word on the whereabouts of Sen. Gechen, who was plucked from a Bogotá-bound Aires
                      Airlines flight Wednesday morning by four hijackers. Rebels also set bombs to keep authorities from
                      catching them -- killing a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.