News Digest

Nearly 3 dozen trapped U.N. peacekeepers safely rescued in Golan

Nearly three dozen UN peacekeepers from the Philippines who had been surrounded for days by Islamist militants on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were rescued during a firefight on Saturday, UN officials said. Clashes erupted between al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels and UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Saturday after the militants surrounded their encampment, activists and officials said.

They were safely extracted, nearly three dozen of them.

U.N. official

The U.N. officials said the other Philippine peacekeepers remained trapped by the militants, who have been battling the Syrian army on the Golan Heights. U.N. officials are also trying to establish the whereabouts of 44 Fijian peacekeepers, seized by al Qaeda-linked militants this week along the rocky boundary between Syria and the Golan Heights.