Fiji: 45 peacekeepers held by al Qaeda backed militants to be released

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head of Fiji's army said on Wednesday, September 10 that he expected 45 Fijian U.N. peacekeepers seized two weeks ago on the Golan Heights by an al Qaeda-backed militant group, the Nusra Front, to be released within days, according to Reuters.

"Al Nusra has confirmed to the U.N. headquarters in New York that the Fijian peacekeepers will be released within the next few days," Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga told a news conference in the Fijian capital, Suva.

Syria's three-year civil war reached the frontier with Israeli-controlled territory last month 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 U.N. blue helmets from a peacekeeping force that has patrolled the ceasefire line for 40 years. After the Fijians were captured, more than 70 Filipinos spent two days besieged at two locations before reaching safety.

The Nusra Front, a Syrian affiliate of al Qaeda, had a list of demands including compensation for fighters killed during the confrontation, humanitarian assistance for its supporters and its removal from the U.N. list of terrorist organizations.

Tikoitoga told reporters that the group had dropped all of its demands and that no conditions had been placed on the peacekeepers' release.

But the government seemed to back away at least slightly later in the day, saying that negotiations on the specifics of the release were still ongoing.

"Fiji’s Ambassador-At-Large Major General Ioane Naivalurua says that all efforts to release the Fijian peacekeepers are continuing," the government said in a statement on its Facebook page.