The greatest escape: All Phl soldiers safe

MANILA, Philippines - Under cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers, surrounded and under fire by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights, made a daring escape, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said yesterday.

“We may call it the greatest escape,” Catapang said.

“We commend our soldiers for exhibiting resolve even while under heavy fire. This manifests their determination to fulfill our commitment to the community of nations,” he added.

Last Thursday, Syrian rebels surrounded two forward positions manned by 75 Filipino soldiers and demanded that they surrender their firearms. Members of the Philippine contingent refused to yield, resulting in a two-day standoff.

After coming under rebel attack Saturday, the first group of 35 Filipino peacekeepers was successfully escorted out of the UN encampment in Breiqa by Irish and Filipino forces on board armored vehicles.

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 and instead returned fire.

The rebels earlier took 44 Fijian soldiers who remain in the hands of the insurgents. The Fijian troops are held by Al-Nusra Front, a group believed to have links with al-Qaeda.

Syrian government forces, on the other hand, at one point fired artillery rounds from a distance to prevent the Filipino peacekeepers from being overwhelmed by the rebels, said Col. Roberto Ancan, chief of the AFP Peacekeeping Operations Center monitoring the tense Golan standoff and mobilize support for the besieged Filipinos.

“Although they were surrounded and outnumbered, they held their ground for seven hours,” Catapang added in a news conference yesterday.

The 40 Filipinos fled with their weapons from the Rwihana encampment under cover of darkness, traveling across the chilly hills for nearly two hours, before meeting up with other UN forces, which escorted them to safety early yesterday.

“It came to a point that we have to leave in the middle of the night. We escaped from the Syrian rebels in the middle of the night while they were sleeping,” Catapang said.

Catapang said a seven-hour firefight started last Saturday after Syrian rebels on board pick-up trucks attacked the 40 Filipino troops in position 68 at around 6 a.m. Syrian time (11 a.m. Philippine time).

“Our peacekeepers returned fire in self-defense. Our troops fought back bravely and successfully held their positions,” Catapang said.

“This attack prompted UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) to reposition our troops to a more secure position within the mission area,” he added.

Irish troops in armored vehicles fetched 35 Filipino soldiers in position 69, an area about four kilometers away from the site of the gun battle.

“They (Irish troops) are part of the UNDOF personnel just like us. They have the armored assets so together with them, we proceeded to 69 and extricated our troops,” Ancan added.

The Filipino troops were later moved to Camp Ziouani behind UN lines.

A senior UN official said it appears at least one rebel was killed in the fighting during the course of Thursday and Friday, though the details and exact timing remained unclear.

During the siege, top defense and military officials gathered in a crisis room at the AFP headquarters to muster support for the Filipino forces and help ensure their safety.

In New York, the UNDOF reported that shortly after midnight local time, during a cease-fire agreed with the insurgents, all the 40 Filipino peacekeepers left position 68.

“The 40 peacekeepers arrived in a safe location one hour later,” the statement said.

AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan Jr. said Philippine security officials were informed about the successful troop extraction at around 6:45 a.m.

“There were cheers in the room after we were informed that all the troops are safe and accounted for,” Tutaan said.

“There was a toast of coffee,” he added.

Catapang said the Syrian and Israeli governments provided support for the Filipino peacekeepers in upholding “the integrity of the area of separation,” referring to the area of ceasefire between the two countries.

Catapang also credited the US and Qatar governments for helping safeguard the blue helmet troops but did not elaborate.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United Nations will not compromise the safety and security of our troops while in the pursuit of their duties.

“It is in our national interest to prioritize their safety without abandoning our commitment to international security,” he said.

Ancan confirmed the Syrian government provided “indirect fire support” that took the pressure off the Filipinos, who were besieged by rebels Thursday but defied demands that they give up their weapons.

Asked what the Filipino peacekeepers would do now, AFP public affairs chief Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said, “We continue our mission. Our commitment is still there.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) commended the Filipino peacekeepers who managed to escape from a seven-hour firefight with Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights.

“We commend our soldiers for exhibiting resolve even while under heavy fire. This manifests their determination to fulfill our commitment to the community of nations,” the DFA said in a statement.

The United Kingdom also lauded the Filipino peacekeepers for showing their courage and standing their ground against the Syrian rebels.

UK Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad posted in his Twitter account in Filipino describing the Philippine contingent as courageous and strong.

“Matapang at malakas ang mga sundalo ng Pilipinas sa Golan Heights. Maraming salamat mula sa UK, ang pangulo ng UN Security Council ngayon,” Ahmad said in a post on his Twitter account.

The UK presently presides at the UN Security Council.

The clashes came after Syrian rebel groups, including the Nusra Front, overran the Quneitra crossing on the frontier between Syrian and Israeli controlled parts of the Golan on Wednesday, seizing 44 Fijian peacekeepers. The Fijian peacekeepers remain under rebel custody.

Fijians in good health

A commander with the Nusra Front said the Fijian peacekeepers had been detained because UNDOF was aiding the government of President Bashar al-Assad and had ignored the suffering of the Syrian people.

UNDOF has been deployed “since 1974 to ensure the safety and protection of the borders with (Israel), the usurper of the lands of the Muslims, at the same time it completely ignored the daily shedding of the Muslims’ blood on the other side of the border,” part of a Nusra Twitter message said.

It added that the men were being treated well and were in good health.

A UN official said a number of UNDOF contingents participated in the rescue on Saturday, assisted by Israeli and Syrian forces.

UNDOF has 1,223 peacekeepers in the zone from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

The UN said this week the Philippines had decided to pull out of UNDOF and from a UN force in Liberia, which is struggling with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Blue-helmeted UN troops that included 25 Filipino peacekeepers were seized on the Golan Heights by militants in March and May 2013. In both cases they were released safely.

Austria, Japan and Croatia have all pulled their troops out of UNDOF due to the deteriorating security situation and spillover from the Syrian war.

The Golan is a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, and Syria and Israel technically remain at war. UNDOF monitors the area of separation, a narrow strip of land running about 70 kilometers from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan.

Rebels of the Nusra Front have been battling the Syrian army in the area and have wrested control of the border crossing at Quneitra, which is operated by the UN. – AP, Helen Flores