260,000 SYRIANS RETURN: TURKEY

ANKARA — A total of 260,000 Syrian nationals have returned to a swathe of land in northern Syria where Turkey carried out a crossborder operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday.

Turkey launched Euphrates Shield in 2016 to drive away Daesh militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from its border with Syria. Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organisation. The operation ended in 2017. Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the conflict in their homeland. —