Filipino troops pull ‘greatest escape’ from Syria

Washington Post ^ | 31 Aug 14 | Unknown

[elhombrelibre]

MANILA, Philippines — Under cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers made a daring escape after being surrounded and under fire for seven hours by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights, Philippine officials said Sunday, leaving 44 Fijian troops still in the hands of the al-Qaida-linked insurgents.

[Jet Jaguar]

44 Fijis are still screwed.

[GeronL]

Volunteering for peacekeeping is how little Fiji pays the bills

[elhombrelibre]

Yes, unless some outside force comes to the rescue. The captors are the al Qaeda group and not the ISIS fighters. That’s a little better.

[Paul R.]

One can dream up wild scenarios:

Syria is told to stay out of the way & cooperates.
U.S. aircraft & Israeli artillery hit the rebels.
Qatar acts as go-between to negotiate cease fire.
Israeli operatives “neutralize” a few rebel sentries and guide the Filipinos the short hike back to Israel.

[elhombrelibre]

Yes, your speculations are plausible. I suspect that some of those who cooperated on this may not want the whole world to know they worked together to help get the Filipino peacekeepers out. And if you read the story, it’s clear they acquitted themselves well, too.

[Chainmail]

So what did the UN do while all of this going on? They on vacation or something?

They’re always good for a “pronouncement” or something..

[R. Scott]

“Peacekeeping” where there is no peace to keep.

[Mark17]

MANILA, Philippines — Under cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers made a daring escape after being surrounded

Yep, and in the meantime, I am sitting on my rear, watching a steady stream of Cebu Pacific into Bangoy.

[Cecily]

“UN Peacekeeping” = Give way to insurgents/terrorists and run for your lives at the first sign of trouble (not that I blame these guys for getting out of Dodge).

The UN proves once again that its activities are a completely useless waste of time and money.

[bunkerhill7]

“The UN [Filipino] peacekeepers returned fire [7 hour gunfight, one terrorist killed by Phils] and prevented the attackers from entering the position.” -jerusalem post

Peace-keeping comes out of the barrel of a gun.

Sorry but the only thing Pinoys ever run from is a 200 mph typhoon.
.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/UN-Dozens-of-peacekeepers-rescued-from-Syrian-rebels-in-Golan-372816

[bert]

-——arrived in a safe location one hour later.”-——

You seem to think the safe place is in Israel. I looked hard to confirm that but could not. As I read it, the article doesn’t really say where they escaped to.

[bunkerhill7]

With Syrian Army providing an artillery bombardment of the terrorists` positions,

“Although they were surrounded and outnumbered, they held their ground for seven hours,” Catapang said in a news conference in the Philippine capital, 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.” fox news

Retreat? Hell.

[huldah1776]

To Israel.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-attack-un-peacekeepers-in-the-golan/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=2c5b0dab84-2014_08_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-2c5b0dab84-54804605

[bert]

thanks.....

The headlins should read “UN forces retreat from Al Qaeda onslaught”

[Cvengr]

I wonder how many of the Filipinos were Muslim and how many of the Fijians are Christian.

[elhombrelibre]

I don’t even think they’d allow a Moslem in their national mission in Syria. That’s be too stupid.

[Cvengr]

20 years ago, about 30% of the Filipinos in thee military were Muslim. While they have focuses to avoid fundamentalists in their ranks, they hide their identities.

Hard to tell.

[Pilsner]

I have read that back in the day caravan operators in this part of the world would hire half their guards from the strongest local tribe, and the one each from the next several largest tribes. The idea was to insure that the largest tribe would not attack because it would mean killing, and getting into blood feud with, their own kin, plus smaller tribes. For other tribes an attack would mean a blood feud with the largest tribe and several smaller ones.

Hiring guards from a tribe that was small, poor and distant was like begging to be attacked, because no tribe was concerned about repercussions. Some things never change.

[R. Scott]

Yep.