[An Nahar] The United Nations...boodling on the grand scale...
is strengthening its force monitoring a ceasefire between Syria and Israel because of the growing threat from the Syria conflict, a top U.N. official said Friday.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said extra armored cars would be sent to the force in the strategic Golan Heights where tensions have escalated in recent months as the civil war spreads.
The unarmed U.N. observers say they have been threatened and have also had to treat Syrian forces following battles with opposition rebels in the demilitarized zone, according to a new report by U.N. leader
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
Four Austrian members of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been in the Golan since 1974, were maimed as they drove to Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
airport last week. Syrian and Israeli forces have repeatedly exchanged fire across the ceasefire line.
Canada pulled its small contingent out of UNDOF in September and other contributor countries have raised concerns, diplomats said. Austria, Croatia, India, Japan and Philippines provide the 1,000 troops in the force.
"We take very much to heart the safety and security of our personnel in UNDOF," Ladsous told news hounds.
On top of sending extra armored cars, the force would reinforce its "political analysis capacity," Ladsous said. "We do all this in very close consultations with our troop contributing countries."
The UNDOF countries are to meet next week ahead of the U.N. Security Council's renewal of the force's mandate.