Syrian video shows Filipino peacekeepers in safe place

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The main Syrian National Coalition opposition organization will meet in Istanbul on Tuesday to elect a provisional prime minister, coalition members said on Thursday.

The decision was made after former premier Riad Hijab, the highest ranking civilian defector since the revolt and the top candidate for the job, withdrew his candidacy, several coalition members told Reuters in Amman.

Hijab had run into opposition from Islamists and liberal members of the coalition for his previous ties with Syria's ruling hierarchy.

Video shows Filipino peacekeepers in "safe place"

This as rebels holding 21 U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights in southern Syria say government forces must leave the area before they free their "guests", an activist in touch with the fighters said on Thursday.

Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a spokesman for the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" rebel brigade as saying the peacekeepers were being held as "guests" in the village of Jamla, about a mile (1.6 km) from a ceasefire line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"He said they will not be harmed. But the rebels want the Syrian army and tanks to pull back from the area," Abdelrahman said after speaking to the rebel spokesman on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released a video purporting to show six Filipino peacekeepers from a United Nations convoy.

In the video, a man who identifies himself as a captain in the U.N. Filipino battalion says he and his men were in "a safe place" and had stopped in the village of Jamla because of bombing and artillery fire in the area.

"Civilian people helped us for our safety and distributed us in different places to keep us safe. They gave us good accommodation and gave us food to eat and water to drink," he said.

The capture of the U.N. peacekeepers close to Israeli-held territory was another sign that Syria's conflict, nearing its second anniversary, could spill over to neighboring countries.

Israel has said it will not "stand idle" if violence spreads to the Golan, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, however voiced confidence on Thursday that the United Nations could secure the release of UN peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels near the Golan Heights, signalling it would not intervene in the crisis.

"Restricting the movement of troops in an international force is a significant event," Amos Gilad, a senior Defense Ministry official, said on Israel Radio.

"The United Nations ... can be trusted to persuade them (the rebels) ultimately to free them."

Gilad said the rebels, seeking foreign support, had no interest "in getting into a confrontation with the international community".

On the Ground:

Meanwhile, Syrian activists said new clashes have erupted between government troops and rebels near the area where gunmen fighting President Bashar Assad's forces abducted the 21 U.N. peacekeepers. This as regime troops also shelled rebel posts in the Northern city of Raqqa.

Opposition sources and residents said rebel fighters captured Raqqa on Monday and toppled a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's father, in what would be the first major city to be captured since the revolt erupted against four decades of Assad family rule in March 2011.

Separately, Damascus called on the International Community to take a clear stance on the ongoing interference in Syria, particularly Ankara's meddling in the affairs of the country.

AP/REUTERS/LBCI

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