ANTAKYA, Turkey — Syrian rebels released 21 detained United Nations peacekeepers to Jordanian forces on Saturday, ending a three-day standoff that raised new tensions in the region and new questions about the fighters just as the United States and other nations were grappling over whether to allow more arms to flow to the rebel movement.
The peacekeepers, from the Philippines, arrived “well and unharmed,” United Nations officials said on Saturday.
The release of the troops ended a drama that began on Wednesday when a rebel faction that has long operated in the south of Syria, known as the Martyrs of Yarmouk, seized the soldiers, part of a four-nation United Nations force that monitors the demilitarized zone between Syria and the portion of the Golan Heights that Israel captured in 1967. Fighting from the Syrian conflict in recent months has occasionally spilled over into the zone and the surrounding Syrian area the peacekeepers patrol, raising concerns about instability along the sensitive border.
The seizure created a political challenge for the leadership of the disparate rebel movement that has been trying to assert tighter control of the loose-knit fighters under their command, and drew criticism from some antigovernment activists who said that taking the peacekeepers hurt their cause.
The Martyrs of Yarmouk initially accused the peacekeepers of aiding the Syrian military, which rebels said was attacking villages in the area, and declared it would not release them until the army pulled out. But — apparently under pressure from the opposition’s leadership — the rebels quickly disavowed those claims and demands, saying they had detained the troops to protect them from the fighting in the area. The rebels then began negotiations to turn the peacekeepers over to the United Nations.
Continue reading the main storyThe stakes for the handoff were high: if it went well, opposition leaders could at least point to a successful transfer of the United Nations soldiers as proof that rebel units, even if they make mistakes, can respond to orders responsibly. If the soldiers had come to harm, it could have further undermined the willingness of nations to send peacekeepers to the Golan Heights, where Israel has said it will not hesitate to intervene if it feels threatened.
After a tense 24 hours — in which the United Nations said a convoy tried to rescue the soldiers but turned back because of Syrian government shelling in the area — the rebels themselves transported the prisoners to the Jordanian border.
“They are safe now; we have delivered them across the border, praise be to God,” said the rebel commander, who gave only his nickname, Col. Abu Mahmoud, for security reasons. “We took them to keep them safe because they were going through a very dangerous area and they were our guests, and we protected them with our own chests.”
The Filipino soldiers were turned over to the Jordanian Army, given checkups in a military hospital, then handed over to United Nations officials and the ambassador from the Philippines, according to Samih Maaytah, Jordan’s minister of state.
Still, there was political fallout for almost everyone involved.
The rebel leadership accused the Syrian government of trying to kill the detained peacekeepers with artillery attacks and blame the rebels for their deaths. The Syrian government, meanwhile, pointed to the seizure of the soldiers as evidence that the rebels pose an international threat along the Golan Heights border.
And rank-and-file rebels and activists accused the international community of mobilizing more effectively and enthusiastically to rescue the soldiers than to help the millions of Syrians suffering under a two-year assault by government troops fighting to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power.
After United Nations officials called for a cease-fire around the village of Jamlah, where the Filipino troops were being held in several basements, the administrator of the Facebook page for the Martyrs of Yarmouk wrote, “Do you mean you want a cease-fire just for a few hours and then they can burn the entire area and its residents?? Dear God.”
Later on Saturday, the United Nations thanked all the parties involved in the release and stressed that all combatants should protect civilians.
In a statement, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged both sides in the Syrian conflict to recognize the neutrality of United Nations observers, to guarantee their freedom of movement and safety and to “respect and uphold the protection of civilians.”
It remains unclear whether the Martyrs of Yarmouk acted on their own initiative in capturing the troops, though that would not be surprising given that widely dispersed and loosely connected rebel units often operate in a vacuum.
The peacekeepers were detained less than a mile from the Golan Heights demilitarized zone and within the area that the United Nations patrols to monitor military activity there, according to the United Nations.
Asked why the fighters changed their story about the reasons for the detention, Colonel Mahmoud said, “The only reason we asked that regime forces pull back from the area was so we could ensure a safe passage for the observers.”
The rebels posted a video on Thursday that showed three peacekeepers in blue flak jackets sitting stiffly on a couch. The commander of the Martyrs of Yarmouk, smiling broadly, clambered between two of them, put his arms around them and posed as the third soldier leaned in and smiled. Other videos showed the soldiers saying they were being treated well.
But government shelling continued unabated, according to the rebel military command and antigovernment activists in the area. Shelling in Jamlah and the nearby villages of Maaraba and Kuweya has killed more than 50 civilians and wounded about 350 in recent days, the command said in a statement.
“This is being done with the aim to kill the international observers to exploit their cause for political purposes,” the statement said. The government denied shelling the village, saying it was targeting rebels around it in an effort to rescue the peacekeepers.
Finally Colonel Mahmoud and his fighters took the prisoners to the Yarmouk Valley near the Jordanian border for the handoff.
An antigovernment activist from Idlib Province in Syria said the rebels had made a mistake in taking the soldiers.
“We don’t want the world to be more against us,” said the activist, named Obaida, who asked to be identified by only his first name for safety. “They are already against us, so we shouldn’t be involved in such operations.”
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