Manila: Filipino peacekeepers will not withdraw from the Golan Heights despite an incident Thursday where a soldier from the Philippine contingent was wounded.
Gen Emmanuel Bautista, chief of the Philippines armed forces, said Friday that more than 300-strong Filipino peacekeeping contingent will remain in the Golan Heights despite the increasing tension in the area as a fallout of the civil war in Syria.
Bautista said the decision on whether Filipino peacekeepers will stay or withdraw is a foreign relations matter and not a judgement involving military considerations.
“It’s a foreign relations issue and we submit to whatever the decision is going to be,” the Filipino general said.
On Thursday the Philippines peacekeeping contingent in the Golan Heights suffered its first casualty in its deployment in the Middle East buffer zone since 2009.
According to Major Ramon Zagala, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, a member of the Filipino peacekeeping contingent was wounded as a result of “indirect fire” at Camp Ziouani.
Camp Ziouani is the headquarters of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights.
According to Zagala, the Filipino soldier suffered shrapnel wounds in the right ankle. He did not give further details.
Reports reaching Manila said fighting between forces loyal to Al Assad and the rebels have reached the Syrian territory of Quneitra which is in the Golan Heights.
Earlier, there had been two abduction incidents involving Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
Twenty-one Filipino peacekeepers have been held captive by a group calls the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade but were released several days after.
In May, the same rebel group abducted four other Filipino peacekeepers. As with the first incident, the soldiers were later released.
