l'Enfermé
6th March 2013, 20:48
http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-claim-kidnapped-un-personnel-near-israel-border/
Syria rebels near the village of Jamla on the Golan Heights have captured a convoy of United Nations vehicles and kidnapped 20 Filipino UN employees, according to a video released by the rebels on Wednesday.
The kidnappers were negotiating with UN forces and demanding that the Syrian regime remove all its troops from the area adjoining the Syrian side of the border with Israel.
The video clip showed a number of gunmen standing alongside the UN vehicles, while their apparent leader announced his demands. Some of the United Nations employees can be seen inside the vehicles.
In a second video, the same rebel spokesman is seen accusing the UN, the Assad regime and Europe of “collaborating with Israel.”
“The Free Syrian army will remain here until we banish Bashar and his oppression,” one rebel is seen saying.
The UN Security Council strongly condemned the kidnapping and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the peacekeepers.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the council president, told reporters that armed groups had been threatening the unarmed peacekeepers. He said talks were under way between UN officials and the captors.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the UN observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped near an observation post and detained by some 30 gunmen.
The kidnapping exemplifies the escalation in the activity of the increasingly emboldened rebel forces in the area.
On Tuesday, footage aired by Israel’s Channel 10 revealed that al-Qaeda operatives fighting the Syrian regime have been watching and studying IDF patrols along the border, only meters away on the other side of the fence.
In a number of videos uploaded to the Internet, the fighters can also be seen holding various munitions, including old antitank rockets and heavy machine guns.
Croatia announced last week that it would withdraw some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Syria-Israel border due to fears in the Croatian government that its troops could become targets for Syrian government soldiers.
Last month, UN staffer Carl Campeau went missing in the Syrian Golan Heights, sources familiar with the case told The Times of Israel.
Campeau, a Canadian legal adviser, was stationed at the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base on the Syrian side of the demilitarized zone. Attempts by The Times of Israel to contact Campeau on his cellphone and at his office were unsuccessful.
Last week, The Times of Israel quoted a rebel activist reporting that Assad’s army had fled the Golan Heights area bordering Israel, and that rebel forces were in control there.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned of escalating military activity along the Israeli-Syrian border as a result of the intensifying Syrian conflict, which has gone on for two years and cost more than 70,000 lives.
In December, Ban accused the Syrian government of serious violations of the 1974 separation agreement and called on both countries to halt firing across the cease-fire line. He also cited numerous clashes between Syrian security forces and opposition fighters in the disengagement zone.
In response, he said, UNDOF has adopted a number of security measures.
The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE92516Q20130306
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels have seized a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights and say they will hold them captive until President Bashar al-Assad's forces pull back from a rebel-held village which has seen heavy recent fighting.
The capture was announced in rebel videos posted on the Internet and confirmed on Wednesday by the United Nations in New York, which said about 20 peacekeepers had been detained.
The seizure is the most direct threat to U.N. personnel in the nearly two-year-old uprising against Assad and Human Rights Watch said it was investigating the same brigade for past executions.
It came on the day that Britain said it would increase aid to the opposition forces and the Arab League gave a green light to member states to arm the rebels.
The regional Arab body also invited the opposition Syrian coalition to take Syria's seat at a League meeting in Doha later this month. Syria was suspended in November 2011 in response to its crackdown on protests which since spiraled into civil war.
The peacekeepers of the UNDOF mission have been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured by the Jewish state in a 1967 war, for nearly four decades.
Israel has warned that it will not "stand idle" as Syria's civil war spills over into the Golan region.
The United Nations in New York said its peacekeepers had been detained by around 30 fighters in the Golan Heights.
"The U.N. 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," it said, referring to a village which saw fierce confrontations on Sunday.
It did not say the nationality of the observers but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group which is in contact with the rebel brigade said they were Filipino.
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 a two white armored 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," the man, who was wearing civilian clothes, said.
At least five people could be seen sitting in the vehicles wearing U.N. light blue helmets and bulletproof vests.
"If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours we will treat them as prisoners," he said, accusing them of collaborating with Assad's forces to push the rebels out of Jamla.
Nearly two years since the uprising started, rebels are distrustful of a United Nations that they say has failed to support their cause.
MILITARY AID
Earlier on Wednesday the United Nations said the number of refugees who have fled Syria had reached 1 million, part of an accelerating exodus from a conflict which is approaching its second anniversary with no prospect of an end to the bloodshed.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pledging support for Assad's opponents, said the civil war had reached catastrophic proportions and that international efforts to stem the violence had been an abject failure.
Senior U.S. and Russian diplomats will discuss the conflict at a meeting in London on Thursday, Russia said, the latest in a series of meetings aimed at seeking an end to the bloodshed.
But Hague said the chances of getting an immediate political solution to the crisis were slim and that diplomacy was taking too long. However, he played down the prospect of direct Western military intervention.
"If a political solution to the crisis in Syria is not found and the conflict continues, we and the rest of the European Union will have to be ready to move further, and we should not rule out any option for saving lives," he said.
A Syrian rebel leader sought to persuade European governments to lift an arms embargo for the rebels, saying any weapons provided would be accounted for and possibly returned.
Brigadier Selim Idris said in Brussels that Syrian rebels recorded the arms they received.
"The weapons are registered on lists with numbers on each weapon. We distribute those weapons. And we know precisely who has received them," he told a news conference.
ONE MILLION REFUGEES
At a registration center for Syrians in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a 19-year-old mother of two registered on Wednesday as the millionth refugee to flee her country.
"The situation is very bad for us. We can't find work," said the teenage mother, wearing a green headscarf and holding her daughter as she spoke to reporters.
"I live with 20 people in one room. We can't find any other house as it is too expensive. We want to return to Syria. We wish for the crisis to be resolved."
Syrians started trickling out of the country 23 months ago when Assad's forces shot at pro-democracy protests inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.
The uprising has since turned into an increasingly sectarian struggle between armed rebels and government soldiers and militias. An estimated 70,000 people have been killed.
Around half the refugees are children, most of them aged under 11, and the numbers leaving are mounting every week, the United Nations refugee agency said in statement.
"With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Jonathon Burch in Anakara; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Syria rebels near the village of Jamla on the Golan Heights have captured a convoy of United Nations vehicles and kidnapped 20 Filipino UN employees, according to a video released by the rebels on Wednesday.
The kidnappers were negotiating with UN forces and demanding that the Syrian regime remove all its troops from the area adjoining the Syrian side of the border with Israel.
The video clip showed a number of gunmen standing alongside the UN vehicles, while their apparent leader announced his demands. Some of the United Nations employees can be seen inside the vehicles.
In a second video, the same rebel spokesman is seen accusing the UN, the Assad regime and Europe of “collaborating with Israel.”
“The Free Syrian army will remain here until we banish Bashar and his oppression,” one rebel is seen saying.
The UN Security Council strongly condemned the kidnapping and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the peacekeepers.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the council president, told reporters that armed groups had been threatening the unarmed peacekeepers. He said talks were under way between UN officials and the captors.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the UN observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped near an observation post and detained by some 30 gunmen.
The kidnapping exemplifies the escalation in the activity of the increasingly emboldened rebel forces in the area.
On Tuesday, footage aired by Israel’s Channel 10 revealed that al-Qaeda operatives fighting the Syrian regime have been watching and studying IDF patrols along the border, only meters away on the other side of the fence.
In a number of videos uploaded to the Internet, the fighters can also be seen holding various munitions, including old antitank rockets and heavy machine guns.
Croatia announced last week that it would withdraw some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Syria-Israel border due to fears in the Croatian government that its troops could become targets for Syrian government soldiers.
Last month, UN staffer Carl Campeau went missing in the Syrian Golan Heights, sources familiar with the case told The Times of Israel.
Campeau, a Canadian legal adviser, was stationed at the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base on the Syrian side of the demilitarized zone. Attempts by The Times of Israel to contact Campeau on his cellphone and at his office were unsuccessful.
Last week, The Times of Israel quoted a rebel activist reporting that Assad’s army had fled the Golan Heights area bordering Israel, and that rebel forces were in control there.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned of escalating military activity along the Israeli-Syrian border as a result of the intensifying Syrian conflict, which has gone on for two years and cost more than 70,000 lives.
In December, Ban accused the Syrian government of serious violations of the 1974 separation agreement and called on both countries to halt firing across the cease-fire line. He also cited numerous clashes between Syrian security forces and opposition fighters in the disengagement zone.
In response, he said, UNDOF has adopted a number of security measures.
The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE92516Q20130306
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels have seized a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights and say they will hold them captive until President Bashar al-Assad's forces pull back from a rebel-held village which has seen heavy recent fighting.
The capture was announced in rebel videos posted on the Internet and confirmed on Wednesday by the United Nations in New York, which said about 20 peacekeepers had been detained.
The seizure is the most direct threat to U.N. personnel in the nearly two-year-old uprising against Assad and Human Rights Watch said it was investigating the same brigade for past executions.
It came on the day that Britain said it would increase aid to the opposition forces and the Arab League gave a green light to member states to arm the rebels.
The regional Arab body also invited the opposition Syrian coalition to take Syria's seat at a League meeting in Doha later this month. Syria was suspended in November 2011 in response to its crackdown on protests which since spiraled into civil war.
The peacekeepers of the UNDOF mission have been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured by the Jewish state in a 1967 war, for nearly four decades.
Israel has warned that it will not "stand idle" as Syria's civil war spills over into the Golan region.
The United Nations in New York said its peacekeepers had been detained by around 30 fighters in the Golan Heights.
"The U.N. 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," it said, referring to a village which saw fierce confrontations on Sunday.
It did not say the nationality of the observers but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group which is in contact with the rebel brigade said they were Filipino.
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 a two white armored 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," the man, who was wearing civilian clothes, said.
At least five people could be seen sitting in the vehicles wearing U.N. light blue helmets and bulletproof vests.
"If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours we will treat them as prisoners," he said, accusing them of collaborating with Assad's forces to push the rebels out of Jamla.
Nearly two years since the uprising started, rebels are distrustful of a United Nations that they say has failed to support their cause.
MILITARY AID
Earlier on Wednesday the United Nations said the number of refugees who have fled Syria had reached 1 million, part of an accelerating exodus from a conflict which is approaching its second anniversary with no prospect of an end to the bloodshed.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pledging support for Assad's opponents, said the civil war had reached catastrophic proportions and that international efforts to stem the violence had been an abject failure.
Senior U.S. and Russian diplomats will discuss the conflict at a meeting in London on Thursday, Russia said, the latest in a series of meetings aimed at seeking an end to the bloodshed.
But Hague said the chances of getting an immediate political solution to the crisis were slim and that diplomacy was taking too long. However, he played down the prospect of direct Western military intervention.
"If a political solution to the crisis in Syria is not found and the conflict continues, we and the rest of the European Union will have to be ready to move further, and we should not rule out any option for saving lives," he said.
A Syrian rebel leader sought to persuade European governments to lift an arms embargo for the rebels, saying any weapons provided would be accounted for and possibly returned.
Brigadier Selim Idris said in Brussels that Syrian rebels recorded the arms they received.
"The weapons are registered on lists with numbers on each weapon. We distribute those weapons. And we know precisely who has received them," he told a news conference.
ONE MILLION REFUGEES
At a registration center for Syrians in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a 19-year-old mother of two registered on Wednesday as the millionth refugee to flee her country.
"The situation is very bad for us. We can't find work," said the teenage mother, wearing a green headscarf and holding her daughter as she spoke to reporters.
"I live with 20 people in one room. We can't find any other house as it is too expensive. We want to return to Syria. We wish for the crisis to be resolved."
Syrians started trickling out of the country 23 months ago when Assad's forces shot at pro-democracy protests inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.
The uprising has since turned into an increasingly sectarian struggle between armed rebels and government soldiers and militias. An estimated 70,000 people have been killed.
Around half the refugees are children, most of them aged under 11, and the numbers leaving are mounting every week, the United Nations refugee agency said in statement.
"With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Jonathon Burch in Anakara; Editing by Michael Roddy)