Under cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers made a daring escape after being surrounded and coming under fire by Syrian rebels in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, the Philippine military chief said Sunday, while 44 Fijian troops remained in the hands of the al-Qaida-linked insurgents. After coming under rebel attack Saturday, the first group of 35 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers was successfully escorted out of a U.N. encampment in Breiqa by Irish and Filipino forces on board armored vehicles, Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang and other military officials said. "Although they were surrounded and outnumbered, they held their ground for seven hours," Catapang said in a news conference in Manila, adding there were no Filipino casualties. "We commend our soldiers for exhibiting resolve even while under heavy fire." The 40 Filipinos fled with their weapons from the Rwihana encampment under cover darkness overnight, traveling across the chilly hills for nearly two hours, before meeting up with other U.N. forces, which escorted them to safety early Sunday, Philippine officials said. During the siege, the Philippine secretaries of defense and foreign affairs, along with the country's top military brass, gathered in a crisis room at the military headquarters in the capital to communicate with the Filipino forces and help guide them out of danger. The Syrian and Israeli governments, along with the United States and Qatar, provided support, the Philippine military said without elaborating. In New York, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, whose mission is to monitor a 1974 disengagement in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria, reported that shortly after midnight local time, during a cease-fire agreed with the armed elements, all the 40 Filipino peacekeepers left their position and "arrived in a safe location one hour later." The clashes in the U.N.-patrolled zone erupted after Syrian rebel groups -- including the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate -- overran the Quneitra crossing on the frontier between Syrian and Israeli controlled parts of the Golan on Wednesday, seizing 44 Fijian peacekeepers. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that the Nusra Front had posted a statement on its Twitter account Saturday taking responsibility for detaining the Fijian peacekeepers. The Nusra Front stated that the Fijian detainees "are in a safe place, and they are in good health, and that we have given them what they need of food and treatment." The Nusra Front also posted a photo showing what it said were the captured Fijians in their military uniforms along with 45 identification cards, SITE said. SITE added that the Nusra Front had seized the Fijian troops to protest the fact that, according to their claims, the U.N. was ignoring "the daily shedding of the Muslims' blood" in Syria and even colluding with Syrian President Bashar Assad's army "to facilitate its movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims" through a buffer zone in the Golan Heights. The SITE report could not be independently confirmed. The U.N. mission numbers 1,223 troops from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines. A number of countries have withdrawn their peacekeepers from the region due to the escalating violence. Philippine officials said Filipino forces would remain in the Golan until their mission ends in October, adding they would not be withdrawn prematurely following the rebel attacks and the capture of the Fijian peacekeepers. Both U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council strongly condemned Saturday's attack on peacekeepers' positions and the ongoing detention of the Fijian peacekeepers. Ban demanded "the unconditional and immediate release of all the detained United Nations peacekeepers." Security Council members, in a press statement, "insisted that UNDOF's mandate, impartiality, operations, safety, and security must be respected." The Nusra Front has recently seized hostages to exchange for prisoners detained in Syria and Lebanon. "Israel is prepared for various eventualities" Meanwhile Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the violence near Israel's northern border, telling Channel 10 News that Israel was "prepared for various eventualities." Nusra Front rebels have been battling the Syrian army on the Syrian side of the border and have wrested control over the U.N.-controlled border crossing at Quneitra. Asked how Israel intends to meet the new challenge in the Golan area, Netanyahu said: "We have already taken steps. We did not wait, we built and renovated the security fence. The Nusra Front has been present there for about the past five months. We are prepared for various eventualities. But this proves what I've said already: we live in a tough Middle East, in a tough area, and compared with other countries, we are taking care of our security and economy better than anyone. But we face challenges on a number of fronts. And therefore, we will continue to do what is right for the security of Israel and its citizens."
Credit: Reuters
Another group of 40 Filipino troops had remained trapped at another encampment, called Rwihana, by more than 100 gunmen who rammed the camp's gates with their trucks and fired mortar rounds after the Filipinos refused to surrender with their weapons. Surrounded and besieged, the Filipinos returned fire in self-defense, Philippine military officials said.
"We may call it the greatest escape," Catapang said, commending Israel and Syria for their help.
Syrian government forces fired artillery rounds from a distance at one point to prevent the Filipino peacekeepers from being overwhelmed, said Col. Roberto Ancan, a Philippine military official who helped monitor the tense Golan standoff from the Philippine capital, Manila, and mobilize support for the besieged troops.
