UN peacekeepers caught up in heavy fighting on the Golan Heights were evacuated Saturday as the fate of 44 colleagues captured by Syrian rebels remained uncertain. An AFP photographer heard intense small arms and missile fire in the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied part of the strategic plateau and the Syrian part, where soldiers with the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) are being held.
Irish soldiers with UNDOF, which is responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the armistice line between Israel and Syria, took part in an evacuation of UN troops during Saturday's fighting, the Irish military said in a statement. "Irish personnel secured a route, provided security as UNDOF troops withdrew from a UN position and escorted them to the Force Headquarters in Camp Faouar" on the Syrian side of the armistice line, the Irish statement said. The UN confirmed that 32 Filipino troops were brought out.
The group was part of a 72-member contingent situated in two different locations in the area. Those remaining are currently still under fire, preventing them from being moved out, the UN said in a statement issued from its New York headquarters. It added that there were no reported casualties among UN personnel. The Israeli military has cordoned off the area and reinforced its troop presence, an AFP photographer said.
Several peacekeepers, whose nationality was not clear, were seen hurriedly leaving the area where the fighting is taking place via an Israeli-controlled crossing south of Quneitra. Speaking on condition of anonymity, UN soldiers said earlier part of the encircled Filipino contingent had been brought out and that others were no longer in rebel hands but awaiting better security conditions so they could enter the Israeli-controlled part of the plateau.
In Manila, Philippines Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin said earlier Saturday that UN peacekeepers had clashed with Syrian rebels. Gazmin said in an SMS statement to reporters that the Filipino troops had been "extricated" from one of their two positions but that another group of Filipinos "is now under attack". The 72-member Filipino contingent was besieged by rebels Thursday but defied demands to give up their weapons.
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