Two undated photographs of UN peacekeepers from Fiji seized by al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were posted on a social media website on Sunday (August 31).
One photograph had the soldiers in their uniforms posing in a group photo.
Another photograph showed 45 identification cards said to be of the peacekeepers.
In their statement, al-Nusra said they were holding 45 peacekeepers but so far, the Fijian army said 44 had been seized.
Reuters cannot independently verify the authenticity of the photographs which were posted on social media.
The U.N. peacekeepers from Fiji were detained by Islamist militants on Thursday (August 30), one of several groups attacked in the volatile frontier between Syria and Israel.
The head of the Fijian army said on Sunday (August 31) negotiations for the release were being pursued but he worried there had been no word on where his men are being held.
Fijian and Philippine troops are serving with UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone) in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
All of more than 70 Philippine troops that were trapped by Islamists in a different area of the frontier were on Sunday safe, according to The United Nations and Manila.
The wherabouts of the Fijians are still not known.
Syria and Israel technically remain at war and UNDOF monitors the area of separation, a narrow strip of land running about 70 km (45 miles) from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan.
A commander with the Islamist Nusra Front, told Reuters the Fijian peacekeepers had been detained because UNDOF was aiding the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and had ignored the suffering of the Syrian people.
UNDOF has been deployed “since 1974 to ensure the safety and protection of the borders with (Israel), the usurper of the lands of the Muslims, at the same time it completely ignored the daily shedding of the Muslims’ blood on the other side of the border”, part of a Nusra Twitter message said.
It said the Fijian troops were being treated well and were in good health.
UNDOF has 1,223 peacekeepers in the zone from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines.
[Reuters wires]
