Coldplay go mobile for fourth album

Search for more stories on this topic on Newstext, our news archive service. Click here

Video

Hostages freed from years of jungle hell

Inside Supernatural

JARED Padalecki and Jensen Ackles discuss ghosts, Latin and a Supernatural film.

Latest videos

Tools

FREED after six years, hostage Ingrid Betancourt has thanked God and Colombian soldiers for rescuing her from Colombian rebels.

"I want first of all to thank God and the Colombian soldiers,`` Ms Betancourt told Caracol radio just hours after she was rescued by a Colombian military operation which ended her six-year ordeal.

"The operation was absolutely impeccable,`` she said.

She said she believed her rescue with 14 other hostages was "a sign of peace for Colombia".

Some of the elite Colombian soldiers who took part in the operation had disguised themselves as rebels, even wearing T-shirts bearing the picture of legendary revolutionary Che Guevara, she said.

"They spoke and dressed like the guerrillas,`` Ms Betancourt said.

The operation began at dawn, when the hostages were told they were being transferred.

The group realised they were being rescued only when they were in the air and one of the soldiers pretending to be a guerrilla shouted out: "We are the army of Colombia, you are free.``

Minutes after speaking on radio, a pale but smiling Ms Betancourt landed in Bogota`s military air base.

Dressed in black pants and a camouflage vest and floppy hat, she descended the stairs of the plane and hugged her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, who was waiting on the runway.

Flanked by Ms Pulecio and Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, she took a phone telephone call while a military general praised the soldiers who rescued Ms Betancourt, three American defence contractors and 11 other hostages.

Mr Santos said military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas` leader.

The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rallying point where two helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting.

The helicopters took off with the hostages, Cesar and one other rebel, and those two "were neutralised`` during the flight, Mr Santos said.

Ms Betancourt said her hands and feet were bound on the way to the helicopters, and that only when the choppers had taken off did military crewmembers reveal their identity.

The rest of the rebel captors had dropped off the hostages and retreated into the jungle. The army let them escape "in hopes that they will free the rest of the hostages,`` Mr Santos said.

The Government said the FARC still held about 700 hostages.

Share this article

Search for more stories on this topic on Newstext, our news archive service. Click here