Thousands Return To Government-seized Areas In Northwest Syria: State Media

Damascus, Sept 15 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Sep, 2019 ) :Thousands have returned to their hometowns in northwest Syria after military advances by government loyalist against jihadists and allied rebels, state media said Sunday.

"Thousands of citizens return to their villages and towns of the northern Hama countryside and the southern Idlib countryside," state news agency SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported "around 3,000 people" going home from other areas under regime control.

Since August 31, a ceasefire announced by regime backer Russia has largely held in northwestern Syria, though the Observatory has reported sporadic bombardment.

SANA said the returns came amid "government efforts to return the displaced to their towns and villages".

The Idlib region of around three million people, many of them displaced by fighting in other areas, is one of the last holdouts of opposition to forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow announced the ceasefire late last month after four months of deadly violence that displaced 400,000 people, most of whom fled north within the jihadist-run bastion, according to the United Nations.

Regime forces had chipped away at the southern edges of the jihadist-run stronghold throughout August, retaking towns and villages in the north of Hama province and the south of Idlib province.

Syria's civil war has killed more than 370,000 people since it started in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

Assad's regime now controls more than 60 percent of the country after notching up a series of victories against rebels and jihadists with key Russian backing since 2015.

But a large chunk of Idlib, fully administered by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate since January, as well as a Kurdish-held swathe of the oil-rich northeast, remain beyond its reach.