U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned on Tuesday the detention of four U.N. peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and called for their immediate release, his spokesman said.
"The Secretary-General calls on all parties to respect UNDOF's (the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force) freedom of movement and safety and security," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
Syrian rebel group, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, said earlier on Tuesday they were holding the four Filipino peacekeepers after clashes in the area had put them in danger.
A picture accompanying the rebel statement showed four peacekeepers wearing light-blue U.N. flak jackets marked "Philippines".
The
peacekeepers were patrolling close to where 21 U.N. observers were
detained by Syrian rebel fighters for three days in March, she added.
Earlier,
a spokeswoman from the Israeli Army declared that a rocket fired from
the Syrian territory exploded in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights,
without leaving damages or casualties.
The spokeswoman added that
the rocket went off in a field near the ceasefire line in the southern
Golan Heights, noting that the explosion is “apparently connected to the
situation inside Syria and the battles between the Syrian forces and
the opposition and did not target Israel.”
Two similar explosions occurred in the same region on Monday. This
as President Bashar Assad's regime has given a Palestinian militant
group the go-ahead to set up missiles to attack Israel in the wake of
recent Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital, a spokesman for the
group said Tuesday.
Syria has hinted at possible retribution
against Israel since the Jewish state carried out the airstrikes over
the weekend, although official government statements have been
relatively mild. In that light, the Assad regime's decision to allow a
minor Syria-based Palestinian group to prepare for attacks is largely
seen as a face-saving gesture unlikely to escalate the confrontation
with Israel.
"Syria has given the green light to set up missile
batteries to directly attack Israeli targets," Anwar Raja of the
Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General
Command told The Associated Press.
He said authorities also told
the PFLP-GC that the group could carry out attacks independently without
consulting Syrian authorities.
Most Palestinians in Syria
remained on the sidelines of the 2-year-old conflict, but PFLP-GC has
fought alongside government troops against the rebels trying to topple
Assad.
Meanwhile, Turkey's prime minister denounced the Israeli
airstrikes on Syria, saying the attacks help strengthen Syrian President
Bashar Assad's hand. Addressing party members in Parliament,
Erdogan said the Israeli airstrikes into Syria were "unacceptable" and
amounted to "handing over to Assad opportunities on a golden tray."
Erdogan
said: "Assad, who has not sweated a single drop against Israel for the
occupation of the Golan Heights is now using the Israeli attack to cover
up the Baniyas massacre."
The Turkish leader was referring to the
Syrian coastal town of Baniyas, where activists say dozens of people,
including children, were killed by pro-government gunmen.
Recep
Tayyip Erdogan also criticized Iran for "turning a blind eye" to
massacres in Syria and accused the international community of ignoring
the bloodshed.
On another note, the
US Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United
States and Russia share common interests in Syria, including promoting
regional stability and preventing the spread of extremism.
At the
start of a meeting in the Kremlin, Kerry told Putin that U.S. President
Barack Obama believed the two nations can cooperate on Syria, Iran,
North Korea and economic issues.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI
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