Syrian Rebels Seize 4 U.N. Peacekeepers

Four United Nations soldiers patrolling part of the disputed Golan Heights area between Syria and Israel were detained on Tuesday by Syrian insurgents, the second time in two months that members of the blue-helmeted international peacekeeping force in that region have become entangled in Syria’s civil war.

• Syrian Rebels Say They Downed Helicopter Amid New Claims on Chemical Weapons (May 7, 2013)

• Syrian Rebels Agree on Deal to Release Peacekeepers (March 9, 2013)

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A Syrian insurgent group that calls itself the Martyrs of Yarmouk, responsible for the last abduction, asserted that it had taken custody of the four soldiers for their own safety and posted a photograph of the detainees on Facebook. All are Filipinos and did not appear to be harmed.

Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations departments that oversee its global peacekeeping operations, confirmed in a telephone interview that four members of the Golan peacekeeping force had been taken and said that efforts to secure their release were under way. Ms. Guerrero said she could not confirm the identities of their abductors.

The Martyrs of Yarmouk detained 21 Filipino members of the Golan peacekeeping force on March 6, in the same area where the four peacekeepers were seized on Tuesday. That group was freed after two days of negotiations and international calls for their release.

The Filipino soldiers are a component of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, the peacekeeping unit responsible for patrolling the Golan Heights buffer zone region between Israel and Syria, established in 1974 after a war in which Israel seized part of the strategic area from Syria. Both countries remain in a technical state of war.

The latest abduction episode came against a backdrop of sharply heightened tensions between Syria and Israel in recent days. The government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has accused the Israelis of aerial assaults on military targets near the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for those assaults, but Israeli officials have said they will hit targets in Syria that they believe contain armaments destined for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that is Mr. Assad’s ally.

The Israelis have strengthened their military deployment in the Golan Heights area recently, reflecting growing concern by Israel that the two-year-old civil war in Syria could spill over the disputed border. The Israelis have reported at least 30 instances of errant munitions from Syria landing in the Golan, with at least five prompting Israel to fire back.