Armed men broke into a UN outpost in a buffer zone separating Israel and Syria and abducted three UN military observers, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.
Herve Ladsous said that the unarmed observers were held for about five hours and released unharmed on Wednesday morning.
It was the third abduction of UN peacekeepers in the tense region since March and underlined again their vulnerability in the spillover of the conflict in Syria, which is now in its third year.
Ladsous called the latest abduction “a very serious incident ... that illustrates the very difficult conditions that now prevail” in and around the area of separating Syrian and Israeli forces which is supposed to be free of armed groups.
The UN Security Council strongly condemned the abduction of the three observers by “a group of anti-government armed elements” who also looted the observation post. In a statement Thursday evening, the council called on all Syrian parties to cooperate with UN peacekeepers, ensure their security, and enable them to operate freely.
Ladsous said that early Wednesday morning, a group of unknown unarmed men broke into UN Observation Post 52 in the area of separation and abducted three members of Observer Group Golan, which is part of the UN Truce Supervision Organization, known as UNTSO.