The Russian military, together with Syrian army units, cleared the village of Tahmas in the North of Hama province and created conditions for the return of local residents to their homes, the head of the Department of the Russian Center for reconciliation of warring parties in Syria, Alexander Roshkin, told reporters.
"In this locality, as a result of a set of measures carried out by the Russian Armed forces in cooperation with the Armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic, the area was cleared, caves and caches where bandit groups and gangs were hiding were destroyed. Thus, favorable conditions were created for the return of refugees, for the return of Syrian citizens to their former places of residence," said Roshkin.
In addition, the Russian military delivered food packages to the village for those who have recently returned to their homes and need help. The main population of the village of Tahmas was engaged in agriculture, built a system for irrigation of fields. During the war, the village was occupied by militants, the system was destroyed, and residents were forced to leave their homes. "When the militants captured this area, many people left. All refugees really want to return home," said the Sheikh of the tribe, living in the area of Tahmas, Talal Abdul Madri.
Local residents, as soon as they return to their native village, begin to restore their homes. "When we returned, it was very difficult, because there was nothing, our house was destroyed. Now we have restored the house, made some repairs, and now we have at least a roof over our heads. All the houses in the village were destroyed. There was nothing, so we had to rebuild everything from scratch," said local resident Mustafa Tamas, who recently returned to the village with his family.
Big role in the liberation of the settlement was played by the people's militia, which drove the militants out of the village. However, fighters continue to be constantly on duty in the Tahmas area, as there are still militants planning attacks on the local population in the desert. "We are conducting reconnaissance in the desert, in the Eastern part of the province of Hama. We are looking for minefields, caves, and caches of militants. Not far from here is a locality that used to be a terrorist base. We took it by storm, drove out the militants, they lost a lot of fighters there. This was their last fixed base," Mahmoud Ahammad, commander of the people's militia brigade, told reporters.
Return of refugees
According to the latest data from the Center, since September 30, 2015, more than 1.3 million refugees have returned to their places of permanent residence in Syria, who were forced to leave their native localities for other cities and towns of the country because of the militants. In addition, about 590,000 people who left the country earlier for the same reason also returned to Syria from abroad.
Also, in Syria, almost 3.2 thousand hectares of territories, more than 3.1 thousand buildings and more than 270 km of roads have already been cleared, during which 37.9 thousand ammunition, improvised explosive devices and other dangerous items have been found and neutralized. Also in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus and Hama, the country's authorities launched a program to restore settlements freed from terrorists, which provides for the preparation of infrastructure for towns and cities and targeted assistance to the local population.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS