The Philippine government on Sunday welcomed the release of its 21 U.N. peacekeepers after they were freed by Syrian rebels and crossed into Jordan, where officials waited to receive them.

The troops, members of a U.N. force monitoring a 1974 ceasefire between Syria and Israel, were abducted on Wednesday.

The United Nations welcomed the release on Saturday of 21 Filipino peacekeepers, who had been seized by Syrian rebels on the Golan Heights, as they crossed to freedom in Jordan after a three-day ordeal.

Philippine authorities also expressed relief at the release of the 21 members of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

U.N. efforts to secure the release of 21 peacekeepers abducted in the Golan dragged on into a third day Friday as Manila said rebels holding the Filipinos were sticking to their demand Syrian troops leave the area.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous was to brief the Security Council on the abduction later Friday as concern mounted about its implications for the future of the four-decade-old U.N. force patrolling the sensitive armistice line between Israel and Syria.

Video footage posted on the Internet Thursday showed some of a group of 21 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels the previous day, with one of them saying they were safe and being cared for, as the U.N. said it was trying to negotiate the troops' release.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted the video which shows six uniformed members of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), and an officer who identifies himself as a member of the Filipino battalion of the U.N.

Malaysia said clashes between intruding Filipino militants and its security forces had left 60 people dead as of late Thursday, as it rejected a ceasefire offer from the fighters' leader.

Police chief Ismail Omar said 32 followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan had been killed in two confrontations since Wednesday near the scene of a three-week standoff in Sabah state, after a military assault to dislodge them.

Israel on Thursday expressed concern that the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights could pull out altogether after Syrian rebels snatched 21 of their troops in the ceasefire zone bordering Israel.

The soldiers, Filipino members of the UNDOF peacekeeping force, were taken hostage on Wednesday by gunmen who said they would be held until troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad pulled back from Jamla village in the southern province of Daraa.

Malaysia's defense minister on Thursday rejected a ceasefire offer by a self-styled Philippine sultan unless his fighters who launched a deadly incursion "surrender unconditionally.”

"A unilateral ceasefire is not accepted by Malaysia unless the militants surrender unconditionally," Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on his Twitter feed.

The Philippines on Thursday strongly condemned the hostage-taking of 21 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone and demanded their immediate release.

The soldiers, part of a 300-strong Filipino peacekeeping unit, were detained at a rebel observation point on Wednesday by gunmen who said the troops would be held until Syrian regime forces pulled back from a Golan village.

Malaysian air and ground forces launched an assault on defiant Filipino intruders on Tuesday as the government moved to end a three-week incursion that had already killed 27 people.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said the government had no choice but to quell Malaysia's worst security crisis in years, sparked when militants invaded to claim the Malaysian state of Sabah for a self-styled Philippine sultan.

Five Malaysian policemen and two gunmen died in a fresh clash on Borneo as fears mounted that violence linked to a deadly standoff with Filipino intruders had spread to other areas, police said Sunday.

The shootout late on Saturday in the town of Semporna followed a firefight the day before between Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed sultan and Malaysian security forces that left 12 intruders dead along with two police officers.