1000s return home in southwest Syria after truce

Thousands of Syrians have returned home in southwestern Syria, after a ceasefire deal between the government and foreign-backed opposition, Press TV reports.

Residents of the town of Muadamiyat al-Sham, located in Rif Dimashq Province near Damascus, came back to the area after foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants withdrew from the area as agreed in the ceasefire deal.

One of the town’s residents told Press TV, “I can’t wait to be back to my house. Life as a homeless is very degrading and difficult, even if you are in shelters and camps.”

On February 5, Syria’s Committee of National Reconciliation said more than 1,200 Syrian families had returned home in the south of the country following a truce brokered by the committee.

Many hope for similar truce deals aimed at ending the fierce fighting between the Syrian army and Takfiri militants in other parts of the crisis-torn country.

The first step of the deal was the ceasefire, followed by militants’ withdrawal from Muadamiyat al-Sham after surrendering their weapons. Later, the Syrian government is to release some detainees.

The development came in the run-up to a new round of talks between representatives of the Syrian government and the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC) which will resume in the Swiss city of Geneva on February 10.

The last round of talks, dubbed Geneva II, kicked off in the Swiss town of Montreux on January 22. The Syrian government and foreign-backed opposition as well as dozens of nations participated in the event, which continued in Geneva from January 23 and came to an end on January 31.

The talks are designed to contain the foreign-sponsored violence, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced million of others in Syria since March 2011.