Ingrid Betancourt, left, a former presidential candidate, was reunited with her mother

Ingrid Betancourt, left, a former presidential candidate, was reunited with her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, after being released - By SIMON ROMERO - CARACAS, Venezuela Colombian commandos disguised as rebels spirited 15 hostages to freedom on Wednesday, including Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician held for six years, and three American military contractors, according to the hostages and the Colombian authorities. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Video: Hostages Freed in Colombia Colombia Seizes Videos of Hostages (December 1, 2007) Betancourt Viewed as Symbol of Colombia Lost Hostages (July 2, 2008) Times Topics: Ingrid Betancourt Times Topics: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) The United States was involved in the planning of the operation and provided specific support, according to the White House. But officials would not describe the nature of that support, or say whether it included military help or intelligence assistance. The three Americans Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were said to be en route to the United States on Wednesday evening. In France, which has followed Ms. Betancourt's ordeal closely, French television stations broke into programming to run specials on the release, and President Nicholas Sarkozy made a televised appearance with members of her family. In Paris, Ms. Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye, told Agence France-Presse that the news was "an immense joy, an indescribable joy, adding: I still cannot believe it. Appearing with President Sarkozy on television late Wednesday, he said, “We have won a battle for freedom. The rescue of the captives, who were reported to be in good health, marks a major victory in Colombia's struggle with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency that has been attempting to topple the Colombian government for more than four decades. The defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said the rescue operation was carried out Wednesday in Guaviare, a jungle region in south-central Colombia. It comes after the killing and capture in recent months of several senior commanders of the FARC. Gordon Johndroe, the deputy White House press secretary, said the American ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield and the United States combatant commander in the region, Admiral James G. Stavridis, were engaged in the planning stages. This was a Colombian conceived and led operation; we supported the operation, he said, adding, This rescue was long in the planning, and we've been working with the Colombians for five years, since the hostages were taken, to free them from captivity. He said President Bush was kept apprised of the planning and that Mr. Bush called after the rescue to congratulate the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, calling him a strong leader, Mr. Johndroe said. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made the freedom of Ms. Betancourt a diplomatic priority and a public goal, offered in April to go to the border to accept her release. He attempted to work through the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, and sent a French medical team by air to Colombia wait for her. Ms. Betancourt has both French and Colombian citizenship. Mr. Sarkozy, according to his office spoke to Mr. Uribe Tuesday night. Date Wednesday night, he appeared on live television with Ms. Betancourt's children and her sister, and said France would fly them to Colombia, accompanied by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The FARC captured Ms. Betancourt while she was campaigning in Colombia's interior in 2002. The three Americans were taken captive in 2003 after their surveillance plane went down on an antinarcotics mission for the United States Defense Department. Officials in Washington also said that the Colombians came close to mounting a similar rescue mission about four months ago, but what one official called "a window of opportunity" closed before the Colombia security forces could carry out a rescue. Colombian officials announced in June that the American contractors had been spotted by troops in the jungle a few months earlier, but said it had been impossible to try a rescue at the time. Had the Colombians tried a rescue mission in that period, there might have been direct American involvement, American officials said Wednesday. "We had assets postured to help more directly about four months ago," one American official said. "We had more assets postured then that we did not. This one was planned, led and executed by the Colombians." In January, in a deal brokered by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, freed Clara Rojas, 44, who was captured along with Ms. Betancourt, and Consuelo González de Perdomo, 57, a former Colombian lawmaker abducted in 2001. Ms. Rojas bore a child during captivity, who was found to be living in foster care in Bogotá shortly before her release, and not with the guerrillas, as they had indicated. In his television appearance, Mr. Sarkozy also made an appeal for the release of another dual citizen of France, the Franco-Israeli Gilad Shalit, who was taken hostage by Hamas in a raid into Israel two years ago and whose release has been the subject of long and frustrating negotiations between Israel, Egypt and Hamas. Ms. Betancourt's plight gained new urgency in February when a former hostage warned that she was very sick and depressed, prompting tearful appeals for her release from her two children and her mother. Mr. Sarkozy made efforts to secure her release, and even sent a airplane with doctors to wait for her, but then in vain. Jenny Carolina González contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia, and Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Thom Shanker from Washington.