By RICK GLADSTONE and ALAN COWELL New York Times

Syria’s civil war entangled the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the disputed Golan Heights area between Syria and Israel on Wednesday, when 30 armed fighters for the insurgency detained a group of 20 peacekeepers investigating a damaged observation post, the United Nations said.

It was the first time that members of the Golan peacekeeping mission, officially known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, had been detained by any of the combatants in the Syrian conflict, although the Golan region has been periodically affected by armed clashes and occasional artillery or mortar bombardments that have become a source of concern to Israel.

Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the Departments of Peacekeeping and Field Support at the United Nations, which oversees the Golan operation, said the group of 20 peacekeepers were detained near a damaged observation post that had been evacuated this past weekend after what she called “heavy combat in proximity” near the village of Al Jamlah. She said in an e-mailed statement that the mission was “dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution.”

She had no further information on the insurgents involved, but a video uploaded on YouTube by a group that identified itself as the Martyrs of Yarmook claimed responsibility and said the peacekeepers would be held until Syrian government forces had withdrawn from the area. The video does not show any of the captives but does show United Nations vehicles.

The detention of the peacekeepers appeared to underscore the widening risks that the Syria conflict is destabilizing its borders. Earlier in the week more than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq were killed in an ambush as the Iraqi military was transporting them back to the Syrian border.

Rick Gladstone reported from New York and Alan Cowell from London. Hania Mourtada contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

read more here: