Syrian rebels holding dozens of Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage have attacked Filipino troops in the Golan Heights, Philippine officials said.

Syrian rebels, including fighters from an al Qaida-linked group, have seized control of a border crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, activists and rebels said.

Austria announced it is withdrawing 377 UN peacekeepers from the Golan Heights after Syrian rebels briefly overran a crossing point near the border with Israel, a development that has deepened concerns the civil war is spreading to neighbouring countries.

Rebel forces in the Syrian civil war have seized a border crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights.

ISRAELI troops fired at demonstrators in Syria who rushed toward the border fence yesterday in what Israel called a challenge to its sovereignty, killing 14 and leaving around 225 injured.

Pope John Paul II was today heading for Malta - a bastion of his own church - to close a journey that challenged the stamina of the frail pontiff amid momentous gestures for religious reconciliation with others.

Pope John Paul II offered a prayer for peace today in the rubble of a town Syrians claim was destroyed by Israel.

The Middle East political passions and religious drama stirred up by Pope John Paul II’s visit to Syria have often seemed to obscure what he has stressed is the reason for his pilgrimage.