"UN Peacekeepers Flee Into Israel From Their Posts In..." Topic

…The Golan Heights.

"Philippine peacekeepers trapped by rebels in the Syrian Golan Heights are "under attack", Philippine Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin says.

He said the assault had started early on Saturday, but gave no details on any casualties.

In recent days the Syrian rebels have taken 44 Fijian peacekeepers hostage in the area and surrounded 75 Filipinos manning two separate UN posts.

The rebels have also seized a crossing point into the Israeli-occupied Golan…"

Full article here
link

This clearly show how unprepared the UN is when it must confront forces that are determined to kick them out.?

Amicalement
Armand

Of course they are unprepared the clue is in their title "Observer Force".

All the Filipino troops have now all been extricated, leaving the 44 Fijians as hostages of Jabhat al-Nusra.
LINK

Here's one more demonstration that 'international observers' can never do the job of the Israel Defense Force.

The UN should pull entirely out. Israel should re-occupy the rest of the buffer zone, especially the parts the mujahidin have seized.

I hope the Fijians get out safe.

The UN continues to be less than effective in actual combat ops. I hope all the UN troops get out alright too. Save for the Islamic terrorists, they could all be sent to Allah, IMO. And hopefully the IDF will do it … Something similar happened in Kosovo with, IIRC, Spanish UN Peacekeepers in that operation …

UN observers only work when both sides essentially want to keep the ceasefire. They prevent those misunderstandings that could reignite the shooting. And for many decades they worked pretty good in the Golan.

Now that the Syrian Gov't has lost control of the area, well one side of the ceasefire line isn't interested in keeping the peace anymore.

An Observer force isn't the same as a peacemaking intervention force. But the UN command should have seen this coming.

As noted above, peace keepers only work when both/all sides want peace.

Whenever you put a force between two belligerents … bad things can happen if you don't prepare and arm them properly.

Wonder to know which are the orders of the CC of those UN troops in the case they were under attack.
Surrender?

Amicalement
Armand

"As noted above, peace keepers only work when both/all sides want peace."

Well, Israel demonstrably is not interested in peace.

75 observers spread over 2 observation posts? Exactly what were people expecting them to do?

Stuart… logic disconnect there.

Israel MUST not want peace, they MUST be the prime belligerents here, that's why the observers escaped to THEIR SIDE???

Wonder to know which are the orders of the CC of those UN troops in the case they were under attack.

There was apparently a disagreement between the Filipino soldiers and their commanding officer:
LINKAGE

Mardaddy, it was a general observation.

"75 observers spread over 2 observation posts? Exactly what were people expecting them to do?"

Act as soldiers? (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

What says that they have not done so?

The fact is that the Fijians and Philipino soldiers have remained at their posts even though other nations have pulled out of the mission weaking a force that was never intended to be more than observers. (It is not a a peace enforcement mission which is reflected in the number of troops and their equipment not to mention the ROE)

It is interesting that you describe them as having fled when there is in fact nothing supporting thatlink you yourself has posted. So why this conclusion?

Had you actually bothered to check the UNDOF deployment map you would have found out that the Philippine battalion has it's base camp inside Israel, would have been odd for the soldiers to go somewhere else once they withdrew from the exposed posts. A bit more searching would have given you images of the actual observations posts in question revealing that they were not built with defence in mind.

This clearly show how unprepared the UN is when it must confront forces that are determined to kick them out.?

It all depends on the force and mission as well as the rules of engagement. If you have a unit like the Bangladesh battalion in Bosnia which only had arms for half the unit and very little ammunition the commander can not do much. If on the other hand you have a heavily armed mechanised battle group like Nordbat (a Swedish mech battalion reinforced with a squadron of Danish tanks) you can to things like this
link
link

Jabhat Al-Nusra have issued demands for the release of the Fijians. They want:
Aid to be delivered to Syrian civilians.
The release of Jihadist strategist Abu Musab al-Suri.
To be taken off the UN terrorist sanctions list.

Yep, that last one is real: "We won't release our hostages until you stop calling us terrorists." Must go look up the Arabic for 'irony.'

LOL ! I agree ! It's all in the eyes of the beholder …

Jabhat Al-Nusra have just released a video statement saying that the Fijian peacekeepers will be released soon with no conditions. The Fijians appeared in the video and reported that they had been well treated.
No information yet on whether any money changed hands behind the scenes.

Well let's hope this is true … Al-Nusra is not really a trusted source. However, they did recently release a US reporter … maybe they don't want to be on the US/NATO hit list … But since they are AQ affiliates … it may be too late …

Release confirmed. Jabhat Al-Nusra have been doing a fair bit of image polishing lately. There are reports that it isn't getting directions from AQ central, so they may be taking decisions independently.

BBC LINK

They made it clear that the Fijians were being released in accordance with Shariah, after consultation with an Islamic legal expert regarding a promise of safety that JaN had given the Fijians in return for their surrender. Seems they're keen to differentiate themselves ideologically from the Islamic State.