The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has dispatched a forward party of 127 peacekeepers to a base on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights. For the past two years, UNDOF has only patrolled the Israeli side of the border, after withdrawing from Syria due to confrontations with al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels. 'More are expected to join in a week,' UN spokesman Farhan Haq told AFP. 'For now... they will perform as many of the mandated tasks as they can, security conditions permitting.' UNDOF has been deployed along the Israeli-Syrian border since May 1974, following the agreed disengagement of the Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)