More than 200,000 Syrian refugees return from Lebanon: UN

UNHCR support for returnees includes housing repairs, cash

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More than 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their homeland from neighbouring Lebanon _ this year, following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Al Assad, a United Nations official told AFP.

The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of antigov-ernment protests, displaced half of the population internally or abroad.

But the December-8 ouster of the former Syrian president at the hands of Islamist forces sparked hopes of return.

Lebanese plan