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DARAA, SYRIA (AFP) – Thousands of Displaced Syrians were heading home on Saturday (July 7) after rebels and the government reached a ceasefire deal in the south after two weeks of deadly bombing.
Under the agreement Announcement on Friday after talks between rebels and regime ally Moscow, opposition fighters will be in the southern province of Daraa near the Jordanian border.
Daraa is seen as the cradle of the uprising that sparked Syria 's seven – year war, and The President of the United States, President of Bashar al-Assad.
A Russia-backed regime offensive in Daraa has displaced more than 320,000 people since June 19, the United Nations says, including tens of thousands who
Calm reigned over the region on the basis of the ceasefire deal, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based
"Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
" More than 20,000 people have set their sights on the world. Daraa countryside, "he said.
But others" are scared to return to a diet-controlled areas, fearing their children will be arrested ", Mr. Abdel Rahman said.
More than 150 Civilians have been killed in the regime bombing campaign on Daraa since June 19, the Observatory says, and trust in the government does not run high.
Mr Osama al-Homsi, 26, said he was hesitant to return to his hometown of Jeeza in southeastern Daraa after the deal
"Of course I support the agreement to stop the fighting and bloodshed," said the young man, who sought refuge from the bombing in a field to the south of Daraa city. [19659002] "But what is frightening that it comes with no U N guarantees … The Russian and the Syrian diet offer no safety, "he said.
Only when it is clear the ceasefire has been implemented. return ", Mr Homsi said.
Friday's accord follows a string of similar deals with rebels for other areas of Syria, which has seen more than 60 per cent of the country, according to the Observatory.
a series of government victories nationwide since Russia intervened in 2015 on Mr Assad's side, for the formation of a rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus earlier this year.
Under the agreement, rebels are expected to hand over their heavy weapons, while those who reject the agreement will be with their families to the opposition, the state media has said.
An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate group, which holds a small pocket in the south-west of Daraa,
Government forces will also take over "the Syrian-Jordanian border", state media said on Friday, after the regime regained control of the vital Nassib border crossing with Jordan. [19659002OnSaturdayAFPcorrespondedtotheSyrianarmyforcesandtheRussianmilitarypolicedeployedatthecrossroads
One of the arches of the frontier post was damaged, mangled metal wires sprouting from the concrete
The agreement is expected to be implemented in three stages, rebel spokesman Hussein Abazeed said, first for eastern Daraa, the provincial capital and then the west of the province.
"Assad got what he wanted from the deal , analyst Nick Heras said.
He obtained control over the Syrian-Jordanian border areas in Daraa, the gradual disarmament of the rebels heavier weapons, and the opportunity to rebuild his government's inf luence in southern Syria ", the analyst at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security said.
Daraa lies in a wider southern region that Mr Assad aims to retake, including the neighboring province of Quneitra to the west, which borders The Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights.
Aim "taking Quneitra will be complicated," said Mr Sam Heller, an analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG).
"The government will have to figure out how to advance without agitating the Israelis and triggering destructive Israeli military action, "he added.
The ICG said in a recent report that Israel had supported fighters in southern Syria since 2013 or 2014, apparently to" secure a buffer zone on its border ". [19659002] More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria started with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
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