UN peacekeepers trying to halt road work inside Cyprus’ buffer zone attacked

The UN buffer zone inside Pyla village (Petros Karadjias/AP)

Angry Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews working on a road that would encroach on a UN-controlled buffer zone in ethnically divided Cyprus, the UN said on Friday.

It said the attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the village of Arsos, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, inside the buffer zone and abutting the Greek Cypriot south, where the island’s internationally recognised government is seated.