Syria’s civil war entangled the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the disputed Golan Heights between Syria and Israel on Wednesday, when 30 armed fighters for the insurgency seized a group of 20 peacekeepers investigating a damaged observation post and threatened to treat them as enemy prisoners if Syrian forces remained in the area.
As the Syrian civil war has worsened, the Golan region has been periodically disrupted by armed clashes and occasional artillery or mortar bombardments that have become a source of concern to Israel. But United Nations officials said it was the first time that members of the Golan peacekeeping mission, officially known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, had been detained by any of the combatants in the conflict.
Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the Departments of Peacekeeping and Field Support at the United Nations, which oversees the Golan operation, said the 20 peacekeepers were detained near an observation post that had been evacuated this past weekend after what she called “heavy combat in proximity” near the village of Al Jamlah. She said in an e-mailed statement that the mission was “dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution.”
She had no further information on the insurgents involved or the nationalities of the detainees, but a video uploaded on YouTube by a group that identified itself as the Martyrs of Yarmouk claimed responsibility and said the peacekeepers would be held until Syrian government forces had withdrawn from the area around Al Jamlah.
The video does not show any of the captives, but United Nations vehicles are visible. A speaker in the video warns in Arabic: “If the withdrawal does not take place within 24 hours, we will deal with those guys like war prisoners. And praise to God.”
The threat to the peacekeepers underscored the widening risks that the Syria conflict is destabilizing its borders. On Monday, more than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq were killed in an ambush as the Iraqi military was transporting them back to the Syrian border.
As the Syrian civil war has worsened, the Golan region has been periodically disrupted by armed clashes and occasional artillery or mortar bombardments that have become a source of concern to Israel. But United Nations officials said it was the first time that members of the Golan peacekeeping mission, officially known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, had been detained by any of the combatants in the conflict.
Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the Departments of Peacekeeping and Field Support at the United Nations, which oversees the Golan operation, said the 20 peacekeepers were detained near an observation post that had been evacuated this past weekend after what she called “heavy combat in proximity” near the village of Al Jamlah. She said in an e-mailed statement that the mission was “dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution.”
She had no further information on the insurgents involved or the nationalities of the detainees, but a video uploaded on YouTube by a group that identified itself as the Martyrs of Yarmouk claimed responsibility and said the peacekeepers would be held until Syrian government forces had withdrawn from the area around Al Jamlah.
The video does not show any of the captives, but United Nations vehicles are visible. A speaker in the video warns in Arabic: “If the withdrawal does not take place within 24 hours, we will deal with those guys like war prisoners. And praise to God.”
The threat to the peacekeepers underscored the widening risks that the Syria conflict is destabilizing its borders. On Monday, more than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq were killed in an ambush as the Iraqi military was transporting them back to the Syrian border.
MAN STANDING IN FRONT OF WHITE VEHICLE WITH 'UN' WRITTEN ON IT SAYING: "The leadership of Al Yarmouk Martyrs brigade has announced that it is holding UN disengagement forces in Golan Heights, until the forces of Bashar Al Assad withdraw from the outskirts of the village of Jamla back to their positions.
We call on the U.S. and the United Nations and the Security Council...we call on them to get Assad forces out in order to release these forces. We will not release them until after the Assad forces have withdrawn from the border village of Jamla back to their positions, and if they do not withdraw back within 24 hours, we will deal with these forces as prisoners."
Source : Reuters, NYTimes
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