U.S. targeting Colombian terrorists

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Striking a blow against a terrorist threat outside the Arab world, federal prosecutors are seeking indictments against a handful of supporters of the Colombian rebel group known as FARC, officials said Tuesday.

Attorney General John Ashcroft planned to announce the indictments later Tuesday, officials told The Associated Press, speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ashcroft has increasingly sought to use U.S. anti-terrorism efforts against the world's largest drug traffickers as another way to stem the flow of cash and weapons to terrorists.

Prosecutors were seeking charges of conspiracy to commit murder against the supporters and members of the leftist rebel group that has kidnapped hundreds and stepped up violence in Colombia since peace talks with the government there broke down, officials said.

Ashcroft has said previously that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have killed 13 Americans since 1980 and kidnapped more than a hundred others, including three U.S. missionaries in 1993 who are believed to have been killed.