Syrian rebels, government clash in Golan Heights

Syrian rebels clashed with government troops on Monday in the Golan Heights, where al-Qaida-linked insurgents abducted UN peacekeepers last week, activists said. The fighting was focused around the town of Hamidiyeh in Quneitra province near the disputed frontier with Israel, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said there were casualties on both sides but did not have exact figures. Syria's state news agency said the military killed ‘many terrorists’ and destroyed a heavy machine gun in the fighting. The government refers to those trying to oust President Bashar Assad as terrorists. Heavy clashes have raged in the area since Syrian rebels captured a border crossing near the abandoned town of Quneitra on Wednesday. One day later, fighters from al-Qaida's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, abducted 45 Fijian peacekeepers and surrounded two Filipino contingents serving in the UN mission that monitors the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, according to AP.