Beirut: Syrian rebels clashed with government troops on Monday in the Golan Heights, where Al Qaida-linked insurgents abducted UN peacekeepers last week, activist said.

The fighting was focused around the town of Hamidiyeh in Quneitra province near the disputed frontier with Israel, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said there were casualties on both sides but did not have exact figures.

Syria’s state news agency said the military killed “many terrorists” and destroyed a heavy machine gun in the fighting. The government refers to those trying to oust President Bashar Al Assad as terrorists.

Heavy clashes have raged in the area since Syrian rebels captured a border crossing near the abandoned town of Quneitra on Wednesday. A day later, fighters from Al Qaida’s Syria branch, the Al Nusra Front, abducted 45 Fijian peacekeepers and surrounded two Filipino contingents serving in the UN mission that monitors the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.

The Filipino troops escaped over the weekend, while the Fijians are still being held by Al Nusra.

The United Nations says that it is seeking the Fijians’ immediate and unconditional release. It says it has not established where the peacekeepers are being held.

The Al Nusra Front published a statement online on Sunday that included photos showing what it said were the captured Fijians, along with 45 identification cards. The group said the men were “in a safe place and in good health, and everything they need in terms of food and medicine is given to them.”

The statement mentioned no demands or conditions for the peacekeepers’ release. Al Nusra accused the UN of doing nothing to help the Syrian people since the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad began in March 2011. It said the Fijians were seized in retaliation for the UN’s ignoring “the daily shedding of the Muslims’ blood in Syria” and even colluding with Al Assad’s army “to facilitate its movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims” through a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Al Nusra has recently seized hostages to exchange for prisoners detained in Syria and Lebanon.