Syrian rebels have offered to release 21 seized Filipino UN peacekeepers if they can hand them over to the Red Cross, a Philippine military spokesman said Friday, dpa reported.
"The Syrian opposition forces are willing to release the peacekeepers," Colonel Arnulfo Burgos said.
"They want the Red Cross to pick them up, the Red Cross will be the ones to escort them," he told reporters in Manila.
Burgos said the Syrian rebels wanted to ensure "a safer ground" for the release of the Filipinos, who they seized on Wednesday in the Golan Heights while fetching supplies.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the detention of the peacekeepers, saying their "freedom of movement and safety and security must be respected by all parties."
The seized Filipinos were part of the Philippines' 300-member contingent that arrived in November to join peacekeepers enforcing the ceasefire that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War.