But another group of peacekeepers, also from the Philippines, remained trapped by the fighters, and a gun battle was ongoing, the UN press office said on Saturday.
"All 32 Filipino personnel from this position have been extricated and are now safe," the UN said in a statement, adding that the remaining troops, at a seperate border post, were still under mortar and machine gun fire.
"The UN peacekeepers returned fire and prevented the attackers from entering the position," it said. Officials in the Philippines told Reuters news agency that there was a total of 72 peacekeepers trapped in the area.
The UN mission, known as UNDOF, has nearly 12,000 troops from six countries - Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines - who monitor the line between the Israeli-occupied area and Syrian-held area of the Golan Heights.
Earlier on Saturday, Philippines Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said that Philippine peacekeepers at one UN encampment were attacked, but those at another were "extricated".
- There were 40 Filipino troops in the encampment that came under attack, and 35 in the second, according to the Philippines military.
"They then moved through the route reaching the peacekeepers in the base itself safely extracting them and moving them out along the secured route back into the main UN base, which is in the Israel-occupied part of the Golan Heights."
The UN said that there were no casualties.
The unidentified fighters had also seized 44 Fijian peacekeepers on Thursday. The Fijian peacekeepers were captured at their post about eight kilometres away from the Philippine troops.
- Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from West Jerusalem, said that there was no news on the fate of the Fijian contingent.
She added that there was little detail available on who was involved in the fight.
The Golan is a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, and Syria and Israel technically remain at war over the disputed region.
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.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/reports-dozens-un-peacekeepers-rescued-201483016539209725.html
30/8/14
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UN continues efforts to free 44 peacekeepers held by rebels in Syria...
ReplyDeleteThe United Nations has continued negotiating with anti-government rebels in Syria in an effort to release 44 peacekeepers detained by the insurgents last week.
Clashes erupted between the fighters from al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels and the members from the UN peacekeeping force on August 30, after the militants surrounded their encampment, activists and officials said, as the international organization risked being sucked further into the conflict.
The clashes came after the rebel groups, including the al-Nusra Front, overran a crossing near the abandoned town of Quneitra located on the frontier between Syria and Israel-controlled Golan Heights, where the Syrian government troops and the rebels had engaged in firefights for days.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/UN-continues-efforts-to-free-44-peacekeepers-held-by-rebels-in-Syria-374289
3/9/14