Thousands of people forced to flee from the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani are continuing to return home amid worries of what they will find following four months of severe fighting.
Syrian Kurds regained Kobani, a town close to Turkey's southern border, in late January after months of fierce fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) that swept out almost all of the area's population.
Almost daily, the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces and the Free Syrian Army rebels fought extremist ISIS insurgents in the war-torn town.
Some 200,000 Kobani residents rapidly fled to Turkey's neighboring town of Suruç in Şanlıurfa province in one week in early October last year.
So far, more than 10,000 people have left Turkey from where they took shelter. On Wednesday, a group of 1,500 Kobani residents passed through Turkey's Mürşitpınar border gate that links Kobani and Suruç.
Mustapha Beki, a Kobani resident who left his home less than six months ago and settled in the town of Halfeti is one of the thousands going back.
"We know that we have nothing left in there as our house was destroyed in the six months that we have been here," Beki said before passing through the Mürşitpınar gate.
"We quit overburdening people here and are going back to our homeland," he said.
Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters, mainly from the Democratic Union Party's (PYD) People's Protection Units (YPG) reclaimed more than 200 villages near Kobani and the surrounding area from ISIS in northern Syria, according to the watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Those returning from Turkey faced a devastating scene in the place they once called home. Khalid Bozan told AA in Kobani that they need urgent aid for the town.
"They took everything. Our two-story house is demolished, our car and belongings have been stolen," Bozan said, who went back with his wife and nine children in early February.
"The only door of Kobani that opens to the world is Turkey. There is no medicine, doctors or food. We need aid immediately," the 59 year old said.
