UN peacekeepers return to Syrian side of Golan Heights

Two years after withdrawing amid clashes with Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels, UNDOF back in camp Faouar

UN peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, also known as UNDOF, observe Syria's Quneitra province at an observation point on Mount Bental in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, overlooking the border with Syria, Friday, August 29, 2014. (photo credit: AP/Ariel Schalit)
UN peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, also known as UNDOF, observe Syria's Quneitra province at an observation point on Mount Bental in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, overlooking the border with Syria, Friday, August 29, 2014. (photo credit: AP/Ariel Schalit)

A first group of 127 UN peacekeepers returned Monday to a camp on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights, two years after withdrawing amid clashes with Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said more troops from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) would return to camp Faouar this week and that both governments in Israel and Syria supported the move.

“The total number of troops that deployed to Camp Faouar this morning is 127 and more are expected to join in a week,” said Haq.

“For now… they will perform as many of the mandated tasks as they can, security conditions permitting,” he added.

The UNDOF monitors a 1974 ceasefire between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.

Hundreds of UN troops withdrew from the Syrian-held side of the Golan to the Israeli side in September 2014 after Al-Qaeda-linked rebels kidnapped dozens of peacekeepers.

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)
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)

In late August 2014, rebels on the Syrian side including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front kidnapped more than 40 Fijian UNDOF troops and released them two weeks later.

The fighters also clashed with 75 Filipino members of the force, who eventually fled a nearby outpost in a worrying sign of spillover from Syria’s war.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan during the Six-Day War of 1967, then annexed it in 1981.

Some 510 square kilometers of the Golan remain on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line, with UNDOF overseeing a buffer zone stretching some 70 kilometers from Lebanon in the north to Jordan in the south.

“The situation in the area is dramatically different from what it was prior to 2014 and the mission’s concept of operations has been adjusted accordingly,” said Haq.

“But we are going to incrementally return back.”

The returning troops are from Fiji and Nepal. In the coming days, a total of 150 peacekeepers will be positioned once again at Camp Faouar, UN officials said

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