Syria rebels list demands for Fijians
Suva ( Fiji)/ Beirut Sept. 2: Al Qaeda- linked Syria rebels who are holding more than 40 United Nations peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights are demanding they be expunged from a UN terror blacklist, Fiji revealed on Tuesday.
The Fijians, part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force ( UNDOF), were captured last Wednesday when the rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing.
The Pacific nation’s Army Chief Mosese Tikoitoga said the rebels also wanted humanitarian aid sent to a small town which is an Al- Nusra Front stronghold just outside Damascus. They are also seeking compensation for three of their fighters who were wounded in recent days.
“These are the official demands that are being quoted to the UN for the release of our boys,” Mr Tikoitoga told reporters in Suva. Unconfirmed reports in Fiji’s media said the hostage takers also wanted the release of Abu Mussab al- Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, an Al Qaeda leader who was arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and is now being held by Syrian authorities.
The commander said a UN team had arrived in the Golan Heights from New York to take over negotiations with the rebels and every effort was being used to secure their freedom.
Meanwhile, Syrian warplanes pounded the rebel Jubar district of the capital Damascus with unprecedented ferocity on Tuesday, launching 25 raids, a monitor said.
Jubar is in eastern Damascus and has been in rebel hands for a year. It is considered a strategic position because it leads onto the adjacent Abbasid Place in central Damascus.