Lt General Iqbal Singh Singha

New Delhi, Sept. 3: The civil war in Syria has hit a decorated Indian general commanding a UN military contingent at the Golan Heights on the border with Israel and has put a question mark on the fate of about 180 Indian soldiers and the mandate for the mission itself.

Lt General Iqbal Singh Singha, the commander of the UN Disengagement Observation Force (Undof) that has about 1,250 troops from six countries, has been accused by the Philippines of asking its soldiers to disarm before Syrian rebels who overran a border-crossing named Quneitra.

Singha on his part is understood to have told the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) that the Filipino troops were undisciplined, insubordinate and panicky when rebels of the Jabhat An Nusra front, a suspected al Qaida offshoot, reached Quneitra after overrunning the positions of the Syrian government forces.

Singha, then a major general, was appointed the Undof commander in July 2012. Sources close to him have also insinuated that the Filipino charge against him was borne of personal pique because he had replaced a Filipino official, General Natalio Ecarma, who wanted an extension but was denied.

Ecarma is now the undersecretary for the Philippines defence ministry.

Following the row with Singha that broke out since the Syrian rebel forces reached the UN positions at Quneitra on August 27, the commander’s deputy, also a Filipinio serving as chief of staff in the Undof headquarters, has quit office.

The larger picture against which the events involving Singha have unfolded question the UN’s mandate for the Golan Heights mission.

For more than two years now, the turbulence in Syria has been threatening the UN mission. But the mandate for the mission is unchanged: it is to observe and report — not to enforce the peace — military movements by either Israel or Syria in a 400sqkm area that is called the “area of separation”.

The mandate for the 39-year-old UN mission is under chapter VI (peacekeeping) and not under chapter VII (peace enforcement) of the UN Charter.

The Undof is lightly armed, its troops from six countries usually do not carry firearms and patrol the zone in troop-carriers from fixed positions supported by the battalions from six countries.

An Indian battalion of about 180 soldiers is located in Camp Ziouani on the Israeli — and more peaceful — side of the zone and makes up the logistics support team of the mission. The headquarters of Undof, where Lt General Singha’s office is located, is in Camp Faouar on the Syrian, more troublesome, side of Golan Heights.

Controversy touched Singha earlier too in 2011, when he welcomed then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to an official programme with words of praise — “he has all the qualities of an army commander” — near the army garrison in Gandhinagar.

Army sources say that was just a courtesy and not indicative of political preference.

At Golan Heights, between Israel and Syria now, Singha is now combating charges from the Phillipines where the army is saying that its troops made “the greatest escape” possible despite the force commander’s wrong orders to lay down arms.

In an account that is believed to have reached the UN Department of Peacekeeping Office, the details of how the Filipino soldiers acted when asked to evacuate two positions show that the troops refused to obey commands.

The “greatest escape” claim is also debunked. At least 81 Filipino soldiers merely gave up two positions and got out through the Israeli side by cutting a fence.

But before that, the account says, the Filipinos were panicky because 41 Fijian soldiers had been taken hostage by the Jabhat An Nusra front. Singha had apparently opened talks with the rebels to secure their release but the Filipinos’ “great escape” has somehow now jeopardised the efforts.

Singha, who had earlier served with another UN mission on the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, had also been in touch with the Israeli Defence Forces, Jordan, the US and Qatar in efforts to secure the release. He has claimed that on at least four occasions in the past, he had secured the release of troops serving in the Undof under him.