335 displaced Iraqis brought back from Syria: Official

By Amir Saadi

BAGHDAD

Iraqi authorities on Saturday brought back 355 Iraqis who had fled to Syria in 2014 during Daesh terrorist control over Mosul, northern Iraq.

"A total of 355 displaced people were transported from the Al-Hol camp inside Syrian territory via the areas of Rabia, Owainat, Mosul, and then to a center for the displaced in the Hamam al-Alil area in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province,” Yacoub Salim, an official at Iraq’s Transport Ministry, said in a statement Saturday.

Hundreds of Iraqi families who fled Mosul are reportedly still at the Al-Hol camp near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

According to official Iraqi statistics, of 5.5 million people who were displaced from seven Iraqi provinces, as of this March 3.1 million of them had returned to the areas they had fled.

In the summer of 2014, Daesh had overrun much of northern and western Iraq.

Last December, officials in Baghdad declared that Daesh's military presence in Iraq had been all but ended through operations backed by a U.S.-led international alliance. From time to time, however, Iraqi officials announce operations against Daesh-affiliated "sleeper cells" in certain parts of the country.

By Amir Saadi

BAGHDAD

Iraqi authorities on Saturday brought back 355 Iraqis who had fled to Syria in 2014 during Daesh terrorist control over Mosul, northern Iraq.

Hundreds of Iraqi families who fled Mosul are reportedly still at the Al-Hol camp near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

According to official Iraqi statistics, of 5.5 million people who were displaced from seven Iraqi provinces, as of this March 3.1 million of them had returned to the areas they had fled.

In the summer of 2014, Daesh had overrun much of northern and western Iraq.