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260,000 Syrians Return to 'Euphrates Shield' Operation Area- Turkey

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar (left), with Italian counterpart Elisabetta Trenta at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar (left), with Italian counterpart Elisabetta Trenta at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
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260,000 Syrians Return to 'Euphrates Shield' Operation Area- Turkey

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar (left), with Italian counterpart Elisabetta Trenta at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar (left), with Italian counterpart Elisabetta Trenta at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

A total of 260,000 Syrian nationals have returned to a swathe of land in northern Syria where Turkey carried out a cross-border operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday.

Turkey launched Euphrates Shield in 2016 to drive away ISIS militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from its border with Syria. Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization. The operation ended in 2017.

Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the conflict in their homeland. Some Turks view them as an economic burden and a threat to jobs.

“As a result of the infrastructure work and security and stability in the region provided by the Turkish Armed Forces, around 260,000 Syrian nationals have returned to the Euphrates Shield Operation area,” Akar said in a speech.

Akar also said Turkish military operations in northern Iraq will continue in light of Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s failure to take necessary steps against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that Turkey deems terrorist.

"In this context, our operations will continue until the end of the terror threat originating from Iraq," the minister stressed as he was speaking after a week of airstrikes in the area that have targeted PKK bases.

On Tuesday, the Turkish military said in a statement on Twitter that it killed seven Kurdish militants in airstrikes in northern Iraq as they were preparing to launch an attack on regions were Turkish bases are located.

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Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
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Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)

A notorious desert refugee camp in Syria has closed after the last remaining families returned to their areas of origin, Syrian authorities said on Saturday.

The Rukban camp in Syria's desert was established in 2014, at the height of Syria's civil war, in a de-confliction zone controlled by the US-led coalition fighting the ISIS group, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.

Desperate people fleeing ISIS extremists and former government bombardment sought refuge there, hoping to cross into Jordan.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government rarely allowed aid to enter the camp and neighboring countries closed their borders to the area, isolating Rukban for years.

After an opposition offensive toppled Assad in December, families started leaving the camp to return home.

The Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based organization, said on Friday that the camp was "officially closed and empty, all families and residents have returned to their homes".

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said on X on Saturday that "with the dismantlement of the Rukban camp and the return of the displaced, a tragic and sorrowful chapter of displacement stories created by the bygone regime's war machine comes to a close".

"Rukban was not just a camp, it was the triangle of death that bore witness to the cruelty of siege and starvation, where the regime left people to face their painful fate in the barren desert," he added.

At its peak, the camp housed more than 100,000 people. Around 8,000 people still lived there before Assad's fall, residing in mud-brick houses, with food and basic supplies smuggled in at high prices.

Syrian minister for emergency situations and disasters Raed al-Saleh said on X said the camp's closure represents "the end of one of the harshest humanitarian tragedies faced by our displaced people".

"We hope this step marks the beginning of a path that ends the suffering of the remaining camps and returns their residents to their homes with dignity and safety," he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1.87 million Syrians have returned to their places of origin since Assad's fall, after they were displaced within the country or abroad.

The IOM says the "lack of economic opportunities and essential services pose the greatest challenge" for those returning home.