A UN convoy attempting to pick up 21 Filipino peackeepers that their Syrian rebel captors had agreed to free was forced back by a barrage of army shelling on Friday, a watchdog said. In New York, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said the village where the soldiers are being held was coming under intense shelling.
That was denied by Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, who said everything was being done to get them out safely. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a UN convoy entered the Syrian village of Jamla to collect the peacekeepers and that the army shelled the area, a watchdog told AFP.
"When the UN vehicles entered into Jamla, the Syrian army shelled a nearby village. The UN cars then withdraw from Jamla," said Abdel Rahman, who earlier claimed the rebels were willing to hand over their captives. Ladsous said Jamla was under intense bombardment from army forces, and expressed hope that a possible cease-fire would lead to the freeing of the peacekeepers, who have been held by rebels since Wednesday.
"That village is subject to intense shelling by the Syrian armed forces," he said. "There is perhaps a hope, but it is not done yet... that a ceasefire of a few hours can intervene which would allow for our people to be released." He also said "we would strongly expect that there would not be retaliatory action by the Syrian armed forces over the village and its civilian population after our people have left."
For his part, Jaafari said "Syrian forces are not targeting the village. They are doing everything in order to bring back safely the peacekeepers and get the armed terrorist groups out of there." The Filipinos, members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) monitoring the armistice between Syria and Israel that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, were abducted by the rebels on Wednesday just one and a half kilometres (a mile) to the Syrian side of the ceasefire line.
The refusal by the rebels to compromise had dampened hopes of a swift release and forced Manila to step up its negotiation efforts, Philippine foreign affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said. The rebels are demanding that Syrian troops move 20 kilometres (12 miles) back from Jamla, an area at the southern end of the armistice zone in the Golan, Hernandez said.
"The demand of the rebels for the repositioning of Syrian forces in the area of Jamla is still outstanding so this is still being worked out," he said on the Philippines ABS-CBN television. The Philippine government had previously received information that raised hopes the 21 would be released on Friday and the government now did not know if or when they would be freed, Hernandez said. A total of 74 people were killed in the Syrian conflict on Friday, the Observatory said.
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