The peacekeepers were serving with the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (Unmiss).
UN's line, but once that is in no doubt the peacekeepers must be deployed.
Moreover, command and control among the peacekeepers, not to mention their discipline, have been poor.
With such pinpricks alone the militias dispelled the euphoria that greeted the peacekeepers' arrival.
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It couldn't be confirmed if the rebels in the video were those who abducted the peacekeepers.
Then the peacekeepers will help the government in Beirut establish authority over its territory.
Things have gone smoothly so far, but the peacekeepers have yet to be really tested.
The peacekeepers will be charged with securing the nation's roads, and protecting the interim government.
At a pinch, there may be some scope for negotiation over the status of the peacekeepers.
The peacekeepers still need more soldiers, even with the extra 1, 100 pledged by France and Italy this week.
As a warning, the peacekeepers' mandate, when it expired (again) on October 31st, was renewed for only six weeks.
Rebels had detained the peacekeepers, identified by the Philippine government as Filipino, in a Syrian village near the Golan Heights.
The peacekeepers returned fire, then "broke contact, " Reuters quoted Major Jim Marshall, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Kosovo, as saying.
Plainly, the peacekeepers need reinforcing fast, with the right sort of troops.
Without the helicopters, the peacekeepers will be unable to perform their mission.
Now, however, there may be good reasons for the peacekeepers to stay.
Unlike the Pentagon, they do not rule out extending the peacekeepers' mandate.
Syrian opposition coalition President Moaz al-Khatib said Thursday that the rebels took the peacekeepers for their own safety due to fighting there.
Mr Kabila, Mr Bemba and the peacekeepers have all beefed up their security in a city packed with armed men and their vehicles.
Temporary barracks were supposed to be in place by the end of this month for the peacekeepers with the K-For force in Kosovo.
The second element is that the rules of engagement are so, that the peacekeepers can use force in order to enforce what they're mandated.
Earlier this week, a video posted on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' YouTube website showed six of the peacekeepers sitting in a room.
They later said they would only release the peacekeepers once government troops pulled out of the town, a demand they appeared to drop during negotiations.
But the U.S., Britain and other nations have said they will impose sanctions if Sudan prevents the peacekeepers from carrying out their mission in Darfur.
Late Friday, a man who said he was one of the peacekeepers told the Arabic news network Al-Arabiya via Skype that he expects to be released Saturday.
By the end of the week the peacekeepers had seized more than 600 mostly crude weapons and arrested several dozen suspected militia members, including an Aitarak platoon commander.
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The release is contingent on a cease-fire between government forces and rebels around the village of Jamlah, where the peacekeepers are said to be held, the group said.
In Sierra Leone, whose war is perhaps even more brutal than Congo's and also involves neighbours and the lure of diamonds, the peacekeepers' goal is harder to define.
The peacekeepers are expected to stay for the time being.
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The peacekeepers were on a reconnaissance patrol because U.N. officials had heard rumors several days earlier of armed men in the area threatening to attack a village, she said.
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