BEIRUT: Thousands of people who were recently displaced by violence in north-west Syria have returned home following a Russia-Turkey deal that averted a government offensive on the last major rebel stronghold, Syrian opposition activists said on Wednesday.

The United Nations said that in the first 12 days of September, over 38,000 people were internally displaced by an intense government aerial bombing campaign in Idlib and neighbouring provinces. Most of them headed towards the border with Turkey, packing already overcrowded camps there, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

It said over 4,500 are estimated to have spontaneously returned to their homes shortly afterwards when government bombardment stopped.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that some 7,000 people have returned to their towns and villages since Monday when Russia and Turkey announced the deal.

Syria-based opposition activist Yazan Mohammed said the flow of people back to their homes started days before Monday’s deal was announced between Russia and Turkey as residents were expecting it.

The demilitarised zone will be established by Oct 15 and be 15-20 kilometres deep, with troops from Russia and Nato-member Turkey conducting coordinated patrols.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the agreement would allow civilians and Turkey-backed anti-government rebels to remain in the demilitarized zone and “retain light arms”.

Idlib is home to some of the government’s staunchest opponents, including civilians and insurgents.

Insurgent groups include Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or Levant Liberation Committee the Turkistan Islamic Party and Horas al-Din, or Guardians of Religion.

Speaking against the deal, some in Idlib said they feared it would pave the way for a massive attack.

The Observatory said some hard-line groups including Guardians of Religion and the Soldiers of God, rejected the deal and said they will not withdraw from the demilitarised zone.

The groups warned that they will fight any side that will try to disarm or remove them from the planned demilitarised zone, the Observatory said.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2018