Fiji confirmed soldiers shown in a new video posted online are its 45 United Nations peacekeepers being held captive in Syria on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The 15-minute video shows two men speaking in Arabic with the Fijian troops sitting cross-legged in the background, Reuters reported.
Near the end of the video, one of the Fijian soldiers speaks in English, according to Reuters. He says the date is Sept. 9 and it's a "very happy day."
"We've been informed that we will be released soon, and we are all very happy to be going home," he says in the video, Reuters reported. It's unclear if the soldier is speaking freely or under duress, but he says all the soldiers are alive, safe and well.
"I would like to assure you that we have not been harmed in any way," he says, adding that they have been treated well by the Nusra Front, given the group has limited resources, according to Reuters.
Fijian government spokeswoman Sharon Smith-Johns said the soldiers shown in the video are those being held by the al Qaeda-linked group, Reuters reported.
In the video, the two men speaking in Arabic describe their version of events leading up to the Fijians capture on Aug. 28, according to Reuters. The men say they wanted to complete a prisoner exchange and to have humanitarian aid delivered to besieged parts of Syria, but denied reports they had asked for the Nusra Front to be removed from the U.N. terrorist list.
During the video, the men speaking Arabic also describe consulting with Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, also known as Essam al-Barqawi, al-Maqdisi was released by Jordanian authorities in June after serving a five-year sentence on terror charges, Reuters reported. He was the mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006.
