Islamists holding UN peacekeepers hostage set high price for their release

Islamist fighters who seized dozens of Fijian soldiers serving as UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights last week are demanding their group be removed from a global terrorism list and that compensation be paid for members killed in fighting, the head of Fiji's army said yesterday.

Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga said negotiations had been stepped up between the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and a new UN negotiation team now in place in Syria.

"The rebels are not telling us where the troops are, but they continue to reassure us they are being well looked after," Tikoitoga said in Suva. "They also told us they are ensuring that they are taken out of battle areas."

Heavy fighting erupted on Monday between the Syrian army and Islamist rebels near where 45 Fijian peacekeepers were captured and scores of their fellow "blue helmets" from the Philippines escaped after resisting capture. The number of Fijians captured had previously been put at 44.

Syria's three-year civil war reached the frontier with Israeli territory last week when Islamist fighters overran a crossing point in the line that has separated Israelis from Syrians in the Golan Heights since a 1973 war.

The fighters then turned on the UN blue helmets from a peacekeeping force that has patrolled the ceasefire line for 40 years. After the Fijians were captured on Thursday, more than 70 Filipinos spent two days besieged at two locations before escaping.