Beirut: Rebels holding 21 United Nations peacekeepers near the Golan Heights in southern Syria say Syrian regime forces must leave the area before they free their ‘guests’, an activist in touch with the fighters said on Thursday.
Rami Abdul Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a spokesman for the ‘Martyrs of Yarmouk’ rebel brigade as saying the peacekeepers were being held as ‘guests’ in the village of Jamla, about a mile (1.6 kilometres) from a ceasefire line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“He said they will not be harmed,” Abdul Rahman said after speaking to the rebel spokesman on Thursday morning. “But the rebels want the Syrian army and tanks to pull back from the area.”
The capture of the UN peacekeepers close to Israeli-occupied territory was another sign that Syria’s conflict, nearing its second anniversary, could spill over to neighbouring countries.
Israel has said it will not ‘stand idle’ if violence spreads to the Golan, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Suspected Sunni Muslim insurgents killed 48 Syrian troops in Iraq on Monday and cross-border artillery fired from Syria has killed people in Lebanon and Turkey in recent months.
Inside Syria itself, the UN says around 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising, which erupted in March 2011 with mainly peaceful protests against President Bashar Al Assad and has spiralled into an increasingly sectarian conflict.
The Philippine government condemned the capture of the peacekeepers — three officers and 18 enlisted men — which it called a “gross violation of international law”.
President Benigno Aquino told reporters the peacekeepers were being well treated and that the UN was in touch with the rebels to ensure their safety. “By tomorrow they expect all of these 21 to be released,” he said, adding that an earlier release was possible.
Aquino said both sides in the Syrian conflict considered the UN a ‘benign presence’ in the country — a view not shared by many Syrian rebels, who hold the organisation at least partly responsible for a lack of international support.
In a video released to announce the capture of the UN convoy on Wednesday, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs’ Brigade accused the peacekeepers of collaborating with Al Assad’s forces to try to push them out of village of Jamla, which the rebels seized on Sunday after heavy fighting.
Human Rights Watch said it was investigating the Yarmouk Martyrs for involvement in past executions, including a videotaped killing of Syrian soldiers that was posted on the internet on Tuesday.
One video showed rebels with several men in army fatigues they said were captured at a Syrian army base near Jamla. Another video showed 10 dead men, including some of the captives filmed alive in the earlier video.
Peacekeepers of the UN Disengagement Force (Undof) mission have been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, for nearly four decades.
The UN Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the seizure of the observers and demanded their immediate release.
“The UN observers were on a regular supply mission and were stopped near Observation Post 58, which had sustained damage and was evacuated this past weekend following heavy combat in close proximity at Al Jamla,” the UN said, referring to a village which saw fierce clashes on Sunday.
It said the peacekeepers were taken by around 30 fighters.
In one rebel video, a young man saying he was from the Martyrs of Yarmouk brigade stood surrounded by several rebel fighters with assault rifles in front of two white armoured vehicles and a truck with ‘UN’ markings.
“The command of the Martyrs of Yarmouk... is holding forces of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force until the withdrawal of forces of the regime of Bashar Al Assad from the outskirts of the village of Jamla,” he said.
At least five people could be seen sitting in the vehicles wearing light blue UN helmets and bulletproof vests. “If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours we will treat them as prisoners,” the man said.
Syrian activists said new clashes erupted between government troops and rebels near an area where gunmen abducted the UN peacekeepers.
