UN Security Council condemns detention of peacekeepers in Syria

The U.N. Security Council has "strongly condemned" the detention of four Filipino U.N. peacekeepers by Syrian opposition fighters in the Golan Heights and demanded their immediate release. The four peacekeepers were abducted in the Area of Limitation Tuesday by an armed group believed to be the same one that abducted 21 Filipino peacekeepers in March. Those peacekeepers, from the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), were later released. The Security Council, in a press statement released here Wednesday, "demanded the unconditional and immediate release of all the detained United Nations peacekeepers and called upon all parties to cooperate with UNDOF in good faith to enable it to operate freely and to ensure full security of its personnel." The four UNDOF peacekeepers from the Philippine Battalion were taken within the Area of Limitation in the vicinity of Al Jamla. UNDOF has been in the Golan Heights since 1974. It has about 1,000 troops and civilian staff, most of whom are from Austria, India, the Philippines, Morocco and Moldova. Syria's Golan Heights was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.