Colombian army rescues hostages from rebels in daring raid

French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three US nationals and 11 other hostages were rescued from Marxist FARC rebels Wednesday, freed from years in captivity by a daring Colombian military raid.

Betancourt, who was captured in 2002, and the three Americans held since 2003, were rescued along with 11 Colombian soldiers in dramatic fashion when the Colombian military infiltrated a rebel jungle camp and removed them by helicopter.

"To all of you Colombians, for all of you French who have been with us, that accompanied us in the world, that helped us to remain alive, that helped the world to know what was going on: thank you," Betancourt said just hours after she was plucked from the jungle in a bloodless military operation that ended her six-year ordeal.

Betancourt said the hostages did not know that their captors on Wednesday were Colombian soldiers in disguise, some wearing T-shirts bearing the portrait of legendary revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The disguised soldiers made the group board a white helicopter with their wrists bound, saying they were being transferred to another rebel hideout.

It was only when they were in the air that "the chief of operations said, 'We are the national army and you are all free.' And the helicopter almost fell because we started jumping. We screamed, we cried, we hugged. We couldn't believe it," Betancourt said after arriving at a Bogota military airport.

"This is a miracle.... There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation," she said smiling, speaking in French and Spanish.

She embraced her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, as she descended from the plane, looking fresh and happy, dressed in an army camouflage vest and hat and surrounded by other ex-hostages and Colombian soldiers.

American hostages Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, captured in 2003 when their plane crashed during a US defense department anti-drug mission, were also freed in the operation, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the city of San Jose del Guaviare.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said late on Wednesday that the three men, employees of US defense contractor Northrop Grumman, had quickly departed Colombia for the San Antonio, Texas in the United States.

Betancourt, a dual national who was captured as she was campaigning for the Colombian presidency, thanked everyone for keeping their plight alive.

"We were able to dream. We were able to keep hope alive because we heard our loved ones" on the radio, she said, according to a translation on CNN.

World leaders were swift to welcome the news, and celebrations broke out on the streets of Colombian cities as residents hailed the brazen jungle rescue as a bright spot for a country plagued for decades by kidnappings.

There had been mounting fears for Betancourt's health following the release of a video showing her looking thin and frail, and her teenaged son Lorenzo Delloye said he was overjoyed to hear his 46-year-old mother was free.

"It is an immense joy, an indescribable joy, I still cannot believe it," Delloye told AFP.

US President George W. Bush congratulated Bogota on the releases telling his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe he was a "strong leader," the White House said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also thanked Uribe, who spoke with Betancourt just after her release, and called on the FARC to end their "absurd" struggle.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and members of Betancourt's family left France for Colombia on a plane late on Wednesday.

Betancourt will likely return to France on the plane, as she "expressed her desire to return... as soon as possible" in a phone call with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Elysee presidential palace said.

As congratulations also poured in from across Latin America and Europe, street celebrations broke out in Bogota with thousands of cars, their horns blaring, packing onto the roads causing huge traffic jams.

Hundreds of people flooded onto the streets brandishing the national flag and shouting "Free, free, free."

Betancourt was the most well-known of about 700 people believed to have been taken captive by the FARC, a four-decade-old insurgency which figures on US and European Union lists of terrorist organisations.