Philippine troops eager for next UN peacekeeping deployment

After nearly two decades on the front lines fighting against Muslim insurgents in the Philippines' violence-plagued south, army Captain Teodoro Nicor is looking forward to guarding a war zone abroad.

Nicor is training with hundreds of other battle-hardened troops to join a UN peacekeeping mission overseas, continuing a tradition that began more than 50 years ago when Philippine soldiers went to the Congo.

"We are very excited," said Nicor, 39. "There is fear but we have prepared really well for this."

The Philippine participation in the UN's blue-helmet brigades came under the spotlight last month when 75 Philippine soldiers fended off an attack by al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights.

The incident made world headlines and prompted the UN to withdraw its peacekeeping force from the Syrian side of the territory. Dozens of the Philippine soldiers who battled the Syrian rebels were among more than 240 peacekeepers who arrived in Manila yesterday after pulling out of the Golan Heights mission two weeks earli because of escalating fighting.

A smaller group of 85 soldiers was to fly home tomorrow, from the Golan, ending a five-year Philippine peacekeeping role that has been marred by Syrian rebel kidnappings and attacks.