Manila committed to UN

The Philippines remains committed to deploying troops in UN peacekeeping hotspots despite the brief hostage-taking of 21 Filipino soldiers, who were welcomed back to freedom in Jordan with a traditional military feast, military officials said on Sunday.

The unarmed Filipino peacekeepers were providing water and food to other troops on Wednesday in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights when they were abducted by one of the rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. After negotiations, they were freed on Saturday on Jordan's border and taken to a hotel in Amman, Philippine officials said.

The peacekeepers, who were treated well by the rebels, were welcomed at the hotel with a "boodle fight" - a Philippine military mess-hall style of eating, where food is usually laid on banana leaves atop a long table and soldiers eat with their hands, said Colonel Roberto Arcan, who heads the military's peacekeeping operations center in Manila.

Arcan said he talked on the phone with one of the freed peacekeepers, Major Dominador Valerio, who remained in high spirits despite the four-day ordeal. "Please tell my wife I'm OK," Arcan quoted Valerio as saying, adding he relayed the good news to the army officer's wife in the Philippines.

An AFP correspondent said the peacekeepers were also greeted by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, government spokesman Samih Maaytah and Chief of Staff Mashaal al-Zebn.

The peacekeepers are members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force monitoring the armistice line between Syria and Israel that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Video footage reportedly released by rebels who handed over the peacekeepers and posted by SITE Monitoring Service shows the soldiers in blue UN helmets and vests shaking hands with insurgents as they cross a small stream to Jordan.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "appreciates the efforts of all concerned to secure their safe release", his office in New York said after the Filipinos crossed over from Syria.

"The secretary-general emphasizes to all parties the impartiality of United Nations peacekeepers," it added.

The Philippine military spokesman told AFP no decision had been taken about where the peacekeepers would go next but that Manila's envoy to Amman "will be directly coordinating with the Jordanian authorities for their turnover to us".

The peacekeepers were abducted by rebels from the Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade in Jamla village, close to the Syrian side of the armistice line.

The rebels had made conditions for their release, namely that Syrian troops move 20 kilometers back from Jamla.

They also demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross "guarantees the safe exit from the strife-torn area of Jamla of civilians", according to observers.

Before last week's hostage-taking, a Filipino army major and his driver were briefly held at a checkpoint in the Golan Heights by anti-Assad forces in January but were released after about four hours.

AP-AFP