Under the cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers made a daring escape after being surrounded and under fire for seven hours by rebels in the Golan Heights, Philippine officials said, leaving 44 Fijian troops still in the hands of the Al-Qaida-linked insurgents. ‘We may call it the greatest escape,’ Philippine military chief Gen Gregorio Pio Catapang said. The peacekeepers became trapped after rebels entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Syria and Israel, seizing 44 Fijian soldiers and demanding that their colleagues surrender. The Filipinos, occupying two encampments, fought rebels on Saturday.