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

Betancourt, who was captured in 2002, and the three Americans held since 2003, were rescued along with 11 Colombian soldiers in a dramatic and bloodless operation when a Colombian military team posing as rebels 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.

She said the hostages did not know that their new 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.

Colombian defense minister Juan Manuel Santos said the operation "will no doubt go down in history for its audacity."

"This is a miracle.... There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation ," Betancourt 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 kilometers (45 miles) from the city of San Jose del Guaviare.

A military plane carrying the trio, employees of US defense contractor Northrop Grumman, landed in San Antonio, Texas, early Thursday and were swiftly taken by helicopter to a US army medical center, television pictures showed.

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.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who spoke with Betancourt just after her release, praised the "magnificent work" of the rescue team and compared the operation "to the greatest epics in the history of man."

There had been mounting fears for Betancourt's health following the release of a video showing her looking thin and frail, and her teenage 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 Uribe he was a "strong leader," while French President Nicolas Sarkozy also thanked Uribe and called on the FARC to end their "absurd" struggle.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and members of Betancourt's family left France for Colombia on a plane late Wednesday. Betancourt will likely return to France on the plane, Sarkozy's office 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 organizations.