Fresh clashes erupt in Golan Heights

Renewed fighting between rebels and government forces is being reported in the Syrian Golan Heights, where 44 UN peacekeepers were abducted last week, the BBC reported.

Activists said heavy clashes were raging around the Quneitra crossing, which rebels seized on Wednesday.

The whereabouts of the peacekeepers from Fiji is unclear, but it is thought they are being held by an al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, al-Nusra Front.

Al-Nusra says they are safe, and so far no demands appear to have been made.

Seventy-two Filipino peacekeepers were also surrounded in two different areas, but they managed to escape over the weekend.

Persistent gunfire and explosions could be heard from the Israeli-occupied Golan on Monday as Syrian rebels and government forces battled for controlled of the Quneitra crossing and the village of Hamidiya.

The Reuters news agency reported that at least one Syrian army tank was involved and that rebels were moving with a few metres of a fence marking the 1974 ceasefire line.

The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Sami Abdul Rahman, said al-Nusra appeared to want to "end once and for all the regime's presence in the area" and also to "expel the international observers".