ALEPPO, Syria: Displaced families returned home and schools reopened in rebel-held districts of Syria’s Aleppo on Saturday after a temporary truce was extended for 72 hours in the battleground northern city.
Residents trickled back into eastern areas of Aleppo, encouraged by a halt in the deadly violence that hit last month, an AFP reporter said.
More than 300 civilians were killed in two weeks of fighting in the divided city before the truce took hold on Thursday, with regime air strikes on its opposition-held east and rebel shelling on its regime-controlled west.
“I decided to come home after relatives told me it was calm,” father-of-six Abu Mohammed said.
“We left because it was carnage here. The air strikes were incredible,” said the resident of the rebel-held Kalasseh neighbourhood.
