TEL RIFAAT, Syria (AP) — The long anticipated return home for residents of the Syrian town of Tel Rifaat, displaced since 2014, has collided with a painful reality — scars of war, streets lined with rubble and ruins standing in place of their homes.
Years of fighting and military fortifications have left an unmistakable mark on the town, a key flashpoint in the conflict between Syrian Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria.
During Syria’s civil war, Tel Rifaat became part of the repeated cycles of fighting and displacement that have played out since 2011.
Syrian Kurdish forces took control of the town in 2016, displacing most of
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