Updated 5 hours 40 minutes ago
ABC
Video: Region in crisis as refugees flee embattled Syria (ABC News)
Syrian rebels have seized a convoy of United Nations peacekeepers near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and say they will hold them captive until president Bashar al-Assad's forces pull back from a rebel-held village which has seen heavy fighting.
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Syrian rebels Map: Syrian Arab Republic
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey told reporters the UN Disengagement Force (UNDOF) had reported that "approximately 30 armed fighters stopped and detained about 20 peacekeepers within the area of limitation".
Diplomats in New York and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the peacekeepers were from the Philippines.
The Britain-based watchdog distributed two amateur videos with statements by the rebel Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade claiming the capture.
In one rebel video, a young man saying he was from the "Martyrs of Yarmuk" brigade stood surrounded by several rebel fighters with assault rifles in front of two white armoured vehicles and a truck with "UN" markings.
"The command of the Martyrs of Yarmuk...is holding forces of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force until the withdrawal of forces of the regime of Bashar al-Assad from the outskirts of the village of Jamla," the man, who was wearing civilian clothes, said.
At least five people could be seen sitting in the vehicles wearing UN light blue helmets and bulletproof vests.
"If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours we will treat them as prisoners," he said, accusing them of collaborating with Assad's forces to push the rebels out of Jamla.
The UN Security Council demanded that the rebels release the peacekeepers, and peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said negotiations were being held with them.
"It is a very serious incident," he said.
The seizure is the most direct threat to UN personnel in the nearly two-year-old uprising against Assad and Human Rights Watch said it was investigating the same brigade for past executions.
It came on the day that Britain said it would increase aid to the opposition forces and the Arab League gave a green light to member states to arm the rebels.
The regional Arab body also invited the opposition Syrian coalition to take Syria's seat at a League meeting in Doha later this month.
Syria was suspended in November 2011 in response to its crackdown on protests which since spiralled into civil war.
The peacekeepers of the UNDOF mission have been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured by the Jewish state in a 1967 war, for nearly four decades.
Israel has warned that it will not "stand idle" as Syria's civil war spills over into the Golan region.
Nearly two years since the uprising started, there is mistrust among rebels for the UN, who they say has failed to support their case.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UN said the number of refugees who have fled Syria had reached 1 million, part of an accelerating exodus from a conflict which is approaching its second anniversary with no prospect of an end to the bloodshed.
AFP/Reuters Topics:unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, syrian-arab-republic First posted 8 hours 50 minutes ago
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