Free Republic

Syria’s civil war entangled the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the disputed Golan Heights area between Syria and Israel on Wednesday, when 30 armed fighters for the insurgency detained a group of 20 peacekeepers investigating a damaged observation post, the United Nations said. It was the first time that members of the Golan peacekeeping mission, officially known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, had been detained by any of the combatants in the Syrian conflict, although the Golan region has been periodically affected by armed clashes and occasional artillery or mortar bombardments that have become a source of concern...

The UN has confirmed that 20 peacekeepers have been captured near the Golan heights by armed Syrian rebel fighters who call themselves the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" brigade. "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 Jamlah," the United Nations said in a statement. The UN has since sent a team in to assist with the resolving the situation. The brigade seized the soldiers who were stationed in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria...