The head of an activist group in Syria says there has been a lull in fighting in an area where 21 UN peacekeepers are being held by rebels, paving the way for their possible release, The Associated Press reports.

UN officials say arrangements are in place for the release of the UN peacekeepers, but that a rescue mission on Friday, March 8 was aborted because of regime shelling in the area.

The peacekeepers, all Filipinos, were taken Wednesday and are being held in the village of Jamlah, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a contact in the Jamlah area told him Saturday that there was no shelling. He says the rebels are no longer linking the peacekeepers' release to a regime withdrawal from the area.