DAMASCUS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 1,000 Syrian refugees have returned homes from Lebanon within 24 hours in parallel to the evacuation of rebels from southern Syria.
Over the past 24 hours, around 1,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon kept coming back homes to the towns of the Qalamoun region in the northern countryside of Damascus.
It was the third batch to return since June amid ongoing efforts to encourage the refugees to come back home after the security situation has largely improved in Syria.
The arrivals were via the Zemrani border crossing on Monday by the use of cars carrying luggage, furniture and home appliances.
On June 28, the first round of 400 refugees returned to their homeland from the Lebanese town of Arsal to Qalamoun via Wadi Hmayyed.
Around 400 refugees returned to their homeland on July 7 from camps in Arsal to the towns of Qara, Jarajir and Ras Al-Maara in the mountainous Qalamoun region on the Syrian side of the border.
The Syrian refugees' crisis has been a hot topic in Lebanon lately.
More than one million Syrian refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon. The government estimated the true number of Syrians in the country to stand at 1.5 million.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry has recently urged Syrian refugees abroad to return home as the Syrian army has liberated large swathes of terrain across the country.
Russia has also been backing the mechanism of the return of the refugees to Syria.
A day earlier, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said the first two checkpoints for Syrian refugees from Jordan and Lebanon have opened, adding that another three will open soon, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.
"The first two checkpoints for refugees (returning) to Syria from Jordan and Lebanon have been deployed and have begun active operation," he said. Those checkpoints are at the Zemrani crossing between Lebanon in Qalamoun and the Nasib crossing with Jordan.
Another three centers for receiving the refugees will be set up in other areas by the end of July.
Amid the efforts to return refugees, rebels and their families continued to leave areas in the southern province of Daraa.
As many as 900 rebels and their family members have evacuated the Daraa province over the past 24 hours, as part of a Russia-backed agreement, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Altogether 24 buses evacuated the rebels and their families from the Busra al-Sham town, the gathering point for those who want to evacuate Daraa toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria.
The Britain-based watchdog group said the evacuees are from areas in southeastern Daraa.
On Sunday, 3,400 militants and their families left Daraa and the nearby province of Quneitra, according to the Observatory.
The evacuations are part of a Russia-backed agreement to allow the rebels and civilians who do not want to reconcile with the government.
The Syrian army has already captured 90 percent of Daraa either through military action or reconciliations since June 19.
Both Daraa and Quneitra are key provinces for the Syrian army due to their proximity to Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Syrian army launched the offensive against the rebels in southern Syria late last month, following the major victory of the army in the capital Damascus.
With the Russian support, reconciliation deals are being reached in several areas, enabling the army to recapture many areas without battles.
