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UN hostages freed in Syria | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Twenty-one United Nations peacekeepers captured by Syrian rebels and held for three days in a southern village have crossed safely into neighbouring Jordan. | |
The Filipino peacekeepers were taken to the border by the Martyrs of Yarmouk rebel brigade on Saturday. It was about 6 miles south of the village of Jamla where they had been held since being captured on Wednesday. | |
"They are all on the Jordanian side now and they are in good health," said Abu Mahmoud, a rebel who said he had gone into Jordan with them. | |
In Damascus, Mokhtar Lamani, a representative of the UN-Arab League mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, confirmed that the men had entered Jordan. | |
The group was part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that has been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights since 1974. After their capture insurgents described them as "guests" and said they would be freed once President Bashar al-Assad's forces withdrew from around Jamla and stopped shelling the area. | |
A brief truce was agreed on Saturday morning to allow for the peacekeepers' safe passage. Although the two-hour ceasefire ended at midday, before the men could be moved, the relative calm prevailed long enough for them to be taken south to Jordan. | |
A rescue attempt on Friday was delayed by heavy bombardment and abandoned after nightfall, the UN peacekeeping chief, Hervé Ladsous, said. | |