(9 Mar 2013) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of Quneitra crossing
2. Close up of sign reading (English) "UNDOF Mission (since 1974) In Service of Peace"
3. Wide of UN military vehicle leaving base
4. Close up of UN watchtower at border
5. UN vehicle leaving to the Syrian side
6. Red cross trucks at crossing
7. Wide of Quneitra crossing
8. UNDOF soldiers from the Philippines arriving from the Syrian side
9. Wide of UN vehicle carrying soldiers from the Philippines at crossing
10. Vehicle leaving crossing
11. Zoom out of Israeli military vehicle driving along border
STORYLINE
Tension was still high on the Israeli-Syrian border on Saturday morning, days after the detention of 21 UN peacekeepers from the Philippines by armed fighters linked to the Syrian opposition.
The 21 peacekeepers were seized on Wednesday near the Syrian village of Jamlah, just a mile from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in an area where the UN force had patrolled a cease-fire line between Israel and Syria for nearly four decades.
UN officials say arrangements are in place for the release of the UN peacekeepers, but that a rescue mission on Friday was aborted because of regime shelling in the area.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a contact in the Jamlah area as saying on Saturday that there was no shelling.
He says the rebels are no longer linking the peacekeepers' release to a regime withdrawal from the area.
The parties involved in the arrangements would presumably include both the rebels holding the peacekeepers and government forces reported to be shelling the area.
Late on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a media person with the group holding the peacekeepers said the rebels would release them if there is a cease-fire between 10 am and noon (0800 and 1000 GMT) on Saturday.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of contacts in Syria, said it was expected that teams from the Red Cross and the UN would reach the area on Saturday morning.
The peacekeepers' four-vehicle convoy was intercepted on the outskirts of Jamlah on Wednesday by rebels from a group calling itself the Martyrs of the Yarmouk Brigades.
A spokeswoman for the UN Peacekeeping Department said late on Friday that a trip to the village where the peacekeepers are being held was aborted earlier in the day because it was considered unsafe.
She said efforts would continue on Saturday for their release.
The captive troops, all Filipinos, are from a peacekeeping mission that had monitored a cease-fire line between Israel and Syria for nearly four decades.
Their abduction on Wednesday illustrated the sudden vulnerability of the UN mission amid spillover from Syria's civil war.
It sent a worrisome signal to Israel, which fears lawlessness along the shared frontier if Syrian President Bashar Assad is ousted.
The contingent of more than 300 Filipino peacekeepers is part of the UN force, known as UNDOF.
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