ALEPPO (Sputnik) — According to him, 32,806 people returned to their homes.
"Since December 20, 2016, a total of 6,245 militants have been exposed in Aleppo, of whom 2,923 have been arrested, 3,322 have been amnestied," Diab said.
Aleppo, Syria's second largest city which used to be the country's economic capital, has been mired in the civil war since August 2012 with the western part of the city has been controlled by the Syrian army while the eastern part was occupied by various Islamist and rebel groups, including al-Nusra Front terrorists.
On December 16, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Syrian army's operation to liberate militants-controlled eastern Aleppo ended, however, several hotbeds of militants' resistance remained.
On December 22, last militants left eastern Aleppo, thus the Syrian army gained full control over the city. Syrian President Bashar Assad called the liberation of Aleppo a "watershed moment."
