Irish members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Photo: AFP
New York: Militants fighting the Syrian army have seized 43 UN peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and trapped another 81 in the region, and the world body is working to secure their release, the United Nations said.
The affected peacekeepers are from the Philippines and Fiji, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
'During a period of increased fighting between armed elements and Syrian armed forces within the area of separation in the Golan Heights, 43 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early [Thursday] morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Al Qunaytirah,' the UN press office said in a statement.
Smoke rises following an explosion in Syria's Quneitra province as rebels clashed with President Bashar AssadÂ'ss forces, seen from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, on Thursday. Photo: AP
It added that another 81 UN peacekeepers were being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah. Ms Dujarric said the 81 trapped troops were from the Philippines and the 43 seized ones from Fiji.
'The United Nations is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers and to restore the full freedom of movement of the force throughout its area of operation,' it said.
Britain's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the current president of the Security Council, told reporters the trapped peacekeepers were surrounded by Islamist militants. It was not clear which faction the militants belong.
An Islamic State fighter waves its flag at the Tabqa air base, Raqqa. Photo: AP
On the other side of Syria, near Iraq, fighters from the Islamic State have killed more than 150 captured soldiers in the past two days, a monitoring group said. Video images posted online appeared to show the men being marched through the desert in their underwear by the extremists and then lying dead in the sand.
The mass killing marked a dark end to the battle for control of the Tabqa air base in Raqqa province. The insurgents seized the base on Sunday after the deadliest fighting so far between the Islamic State and government forces.
It has also emerged that at least four Western hostages held by the Islamic State in Syria, including murdered American journalist James Foley, were waterboarded in the early part of their captivity, The Washington Post says.
Stills from video by the Islamic State show captured government soldiers near Tabqa, Syria. Photo: AP
Foley, whose recent execution at the hands of the extremists provoked revulsion, and the other kidnapped Westerners were waterboarded 'several times', the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with their treatment.
Sources involved in trying to free the hostages have confirmed that waterboarding was used on at least one hostage.
Waterboarding, which was used by the CIA during interrogations of suspected terrorists after the September 11, 2001 attacks, is a widely condemned form of torture that simulates drowning.
While the UN continues to seek the release of its peacekeepers on the Golan Heights, the Philippine army said in a statement that militants had surrounded the Philippine contingent's encampments with Fijian hostages in tow and demanded that the Filipino troops surrender their firearms.
'The Philippine peacekeepers held their ground and demonstrated their resolve to defend their positions,' it said. 'They did not surrender their firearms as they may in turn be held hostage themselves.'
The Security Council issued a statement strongly condemning the seizure of the peacekeepers and calling for their immediate release. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed the council word's in his own statement of condemnation.
The Quneitra crossing on the Golan is a strategic plateau captured by Israel in a 1967 Middle East war. Syria and Israel technically remain at war. Syrian troops are not allowed in an area of separation under a 1973 ceasefire formalised in 1974.
UNDOF monitors the area of separation, a narrow strip of land running about 70 kilometres from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan. There are 1223 UNDOF peacekeepers from six countries.
The force's personnel come from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines. The United Nations said this week that the Philippines has decided to pull out of UNDOF, and from a UN force in Liberia, which is struggling with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse
Posted by Unknown on Friday, August 29, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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