UN evacuates all troops from Golan as Syria fighting worsens
Peacekeepers cross into Israel to get away from border-area battles between rebel groups and regime forces in what UN calls ‘deteriorating situation’
September 15, 2014, 6:52 pm
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A
convoy of United Nations Disengagement Observer Force vehicles is seen
as it leaves the Syrian side of the Golan Heights into Israel on
September 15, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/JALAA MAREY)
UN peacekeepers withdrew from
all of their posts in the Syrian Golan Heights Monday, as regime forces
and rebel factions battled for control of the areas adjacent to the
Syrian-Israeli border in what the UN called a “deteriorating situation.”
A UN spokesperson said all the troops posted on the Syrian side had been ordered to pull back into Israel.
The Syrian armed groups posed “a direct threat
to the safety and security” of the troops from the UN Disengagement
Observer Force (UNDOF), said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“All the UN personnel in these positions have
thus been relocated to the Alpha side,” said Dujarric, referring to the
Israeli side.
The UN spokesperson said that the situation on
the Syrian side of the Golan “has deteriorated severely over the last
several days” and that “armed groups have made advances in the area of
UNDOF positions.”
UN
Fijian peacekeepers members of the United Nations Disengagement
Observer Force (UNDOF) wave as they ride on top of a vehicle while
leaving the Syrian side of the Golan Heights into the Israeli side of
the strategic plateau, on September 15, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/ JALAA
MAREY)
A source with the UN said soldiers from the
United Nations Disengagement Observer Force evacuated from Camp Faouar —
their main headquarters in Syria — into Israel, out of concern for
their safety, CNN reported.
The withdrawal came as rebels reportedly gained control of almost the entire Syrian border with Israel.
Earlier Monday, UN troops were seen bringing
their gear over the border via special gates opened for them by the IDF,
according to an Israel Radio report, and not through the
rebel-controlled Quneitra crossing.
Al-Qaeda-linked
Syrian militants gather around vehicles carrying UN peacekeepers from
Fiji Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014 (photo credit: AP Photo/Gil Eliyahu)
On Thursday, 45 Fijian peacekeepers previously
held captive by an al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group were released in
Syria’s Golan Heights.
Fighters from the Nusra Front group captured
the Fijian troops late last month in the Golan Heights, where a
1,200-strong UN force had monitored the buffer zone between Syria and
Israel.
It was unclear whether the Nusra Front received anything in exchange for the release of the Fijian troops.
In exchange for the Fijians’ release, Nusra
Front had demanded removal of the group from the UN terrorist list, the
delivery of humanitarian aid to parts of the Syrian capital of Damascus,
and compensation for three of its fighters who, it claims, were killed
in a shootout with UN officers.
Undated
image, attached in a statement released on August 30, 2014, on the
Hanin Network website, a militant website, shows Fijian UN peacekeepers
who were seized by the Nusra Front on August 28, 2014 (photo credit:
AP/Hanin Network Website, File)
The capture of the 45 came during heavy
fighting between rebels groups and Syrian regulars around the Quneitra
crossing, the sole transfer point between Israel and Syria. Dozens of
other peacekeepers from the Philippines managed to escape the group
during a firefight.
The Nusra Front has accused the UN of doing
nothing to help the Syrian people since the uprising against President
Bashar Assad began in March 2011. It said the Fijians were seized in
retaliation for the UN’s ignoring “the daily shedding of the Muslims’
blood in Syria” and even colluding with Assad’s army “to facilitate its
movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims” through a buffer zone in the
Golan Heights.
Fighting from Syria again spilled over into
Israel again on Monday morning as a mortar shell struck near the Israeli
side of the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights, the army said.
There were no injuries or damage reported.
Artillery from Syria has landed frequently on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights for the past few weeks.
On Friday night, a mortar shell exploded on
the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, in what authorities believe was
errant fire from fighting across the border. There were no reports of
injuries or damage.
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