Over 1 000 Syrian refugees return home

MORE than 1 000 Syrian refugees, including 546 minors, have returned to their home country from Jordan and Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring in Syria said yesterday.

“Over the past 24 hours, a total of 1069 refugees returned to the Syrian Arab Republic from the territory of foreign states: 419 people (125 women and 214 children) left Lebanon for Syria via the Jaydet-Yabus and Talkalakh checkpoints; 650 people (195 women and 332 children) returned from Jordan via the Nassib checkpoint,” the centre said in its daily bulletin. Moreover, 239 internally displaced Syrians returned to their homes.

Over the given period, the Russian military carried out three humanitarian actions, handing over 4.53tons of food to local residents. The Russian Chechen Republic’s Akhmad Kadyrov Foundation, in turn, distributed oneton of bread in Aleppo.

Syrian engineering units continue to clear the country’s territories of mines and have destroyed 33 explosive devices. Syria is engaged in postwar reconstruction and has already welcomed back tens of thousands of refugees who were forced to seek asylum in other countries over the course of the war. Over 100000 people have returned to Syria from neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon since last July, according to the refugee centre.

Meanwhile, Syrian air defence systems yesterday repelled yet another air strike by Israel in the south of Syria, a source in the country’s military said.

Israel has taken a neutral stance on the conflict in Syria, but it has been conducting air raids in the country against Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah. |