Austria’s Defense Ministry probes United Nations peacekeepers over 2012 Golan Heights fatal ambush

A UN peacekeeper from the UNDOF force stands guard on a watch tower at the Quneitra Crossing between Syria and the Golan Heights, March 8, 2013. (Photo by AP)

Austria’s Defense Ministry is ordering an investigation into a 2012 incident in which the country’s UN peacekeepers reportedly let Syrian police drive into a fatal ambush in the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967.

Austrian weekly Der Falter published a leaked video Friday that was apparently filmed by the country’s UN peacekeepers in September 2012 and shows what the paper says Syrian smugglers ambushing the police.

The Austrian soldiers are clearly heard discussing whether to warn the officers, but then letting them pass, Falter said.

"Really you should tell them," one of the peacekeepers is heard to tell another in Austrian dialect.

The footage then shows the coming Syrians being shot at and killed. During the incident nine members of Syrian security forces were killed by 13 members of the armed opposition.

In a statement on Saturday, the Austrian Defense Ministry said a special commission of inquiry began its work on Saturday.

"As a first step all reports, orders, laws and regulations that could be relevant for the enquiry are being collected, examined and evaluated," spokesman Michael Bauer said on Twitter. "The UN is invited to work with us."

Defense Minister Mario Kunasek said “the incidents will have to be meticulously and completely cleared up.” 

Cited by the Austria Press Agency (APA), a spokesman for the United Nations described the video as "disturbing", saying that the world body would cooperate with Austrian authorities to look into what happened.

The spokesman added that the incident was reported to the UN Security Council and included in a UN report.

Austrian UN peacekeepers withdrawing from Syria carry their equipment as they cross the Syrian border at Quneitra, June 12, 2013. (Photo by AP)

The Salzburger Nachrichten daily cited an Austrian soldier who served as a UN peacekeeper in the Golan Heights as saying on Saturday that the peacekeepers' actions were "100-percent correct according to our mandate."

"The order is: don't get involved," Markus H., who was not present during the incident, told the paper's online edition.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria after the 1967 Six-Day War and later occupied it in a move that has never been recognized by the international community. The regime has built dozens of settlements in the area ever since and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government.

In 1974, the UN established a peacekeeping mission in Golan named the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is tasked with monitoring the line that separates Israel and Syrian forces. 

Austria withdrew its peacekeepers in 2013 due to security concerns.