DAMASCUS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of families returned to their homes in government-held areas in northern Syria on Tuesday, the latest in a series of civilians' returns from rebel-held areas, according to the state news agency SANA.

These people crossed the Abu al-Duhur crossing between rebel-held areas and government-controlled ones in the southern countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, said the report.

It added that the people returned homes in areas that have been retaken by the army in the countryside of Idlib, as well as the nearby countryside of Hama and Aleppo provinces.

For weeks people have started returning to their towns and villages as the situation in northern Syria is somehow restrained after Russia and Turkey reached a deal to impose a demilitarized zone in Idlib and surrounding areas.

The people are returning from areas mostly controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the umbrella group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which enjoys massive sway in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

The Turkish, Russian-backed deal in northern Syria is in its third month amid violations reported on a daily basis, with the government in Syria blaming the extremist militias of undermining the deal. Enditem

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