Over 30,000 Syrian refugees return home from Idlib de-escalation zone – military

More than 30,000 Syrians have returned to their homes from the Idlib de-escalation zone through the Abu al-Duhur city checkpoint which started operating in March 2018, the Russian Reconciliation Center for the Conflicting Sides in Syria said on Friday. The city of Abu al-Duhur in the Idlib governorate, is 45km (28 miles) southeast of Aleppo. The militants were removed from the community in February 2018. In March, the Abu al-Duhur checkpoint was opened. It is the only humanitarian corridor, through which refugees could return from the Idlib de-escalation zone to the territory controlled by the Syrian government. “More than 30,000 civilians have left the [humanitarian] corridor since its launch. More than 1,500 people and more than 60 vehicles left it on November 26-28,” TASS quoted Major General Sergey Popov, a representative for the Reconciliation Center, as saying. Three checkpoints are operating in Abu al-Duhur, along with a meal station and a field medical station.