UN: 21 peacekeepers held on Golan Heights

UNITED NATIONS -- Armed fighters linked to the Syrian opposition detained 21 UN peacekeepers yesterday in the increasingly volatile zone separating Israeli and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights, a new escalation in the spillover of Syria's civil war.

The Security Council demanded their immediate and unconditional release.

The capture comes a week after the announcement that a member of the peacekeeping force is missing. The force, known as UNDOF, was established in 1974 following the 1973 Yom Kippur war to monitor the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces and maintain a cease-fire.

Israeli officials have grown increasingly jittery as the Syrian war moves closer to Israel. There have been several instances in which stray fire has landed in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, and Israel is concerned Syrian weapons could fall into hostile hands and be used against Israel. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, and Syria wants the land returned in exchange for peace.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current Security Council president, said talks are under way between UN officials from the peacekeeping force and the captors.

UN peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous, who briefed the council behind closed doors, identified the captors as being from a group associated with the Syrian armed opposition, Churkin said.

"There was no fighting, according to his briefing to us," Churkin said. "My understanding is that they took over the trucks in which the UNDOF personnel was moving around."

UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the UN observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped by about 30 armed fighters near an observation post that was damaged in heavy combat last weekend and had been evacuated.

A video posted online by activists showed a group of armed rebels standing around at least three white UN vehicles with the words UNDOF on them, allegedly in the village of Jamlah in Daraa province. The video, circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the peacekeepers being held by the rebels are 20 Filipinos.

In Syria, activists said rebels completed their takeover of the northern city of Raqqa after seizing two key security buildings there. If confirmed, it would be the first major city to fall completely into rebel hands since Syria's conflict began nearly two years ago.