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Syria Army, Rebels Clash as U.N. Bids to Free Golan Monitors
[AnNahar] Syrian troops and Salafist tough guys battled close to the armistice line with Israel in the Golan Heights on Monday, as the U.N. pressed efforts to free 44 peacekeepers held by the Lion of Islams.The unrest on Israel's doorstep followed a spillover of mortar and gunfire into Israeli-controlled territory, putting the Jewish state on high alert and prompting it to shoot down a drone over the occupied plateau on Sunday. Several mortar rounds struck on the edges of the ceasefire line early Monday as the combatants exchanged rocket, mortar and tank fire near the Quneitra crossing, which Al-Qaeda-linked rebels seized last week, an AFP correspondent reported. Israel had closed off the area around the crossing after an officer was maimed by stray fire last Wednesday when holy warriors led by the Al-Nusra Front took over the crossing into the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based monitoring group, said Nusra fighters were locked in fierce festivities with government troops for control of the Hamidiyeh area in Quneitra, the army's remaining stronghold there. Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the Syrian regime, said the army was "confronting attempts by Al-Nusra fighters and other terrorist groups" to take control of Hamidiyeh. Meanwhile the U.N. was working to locate and release 44 Fijian peacekeepers whom the holy warriors captured while they overran Quneitra, as 72 Filipino members of the same force escaped a rebel siege on their positions nearby. The Fijians were "safe" but their whereabouts uncertain, a military official said Saturday, indicating there was contact with the group that was holding them. Posted by: trailing wife 2014-09-02 |
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