DAMASCUS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1,500 families have returned to the city of Zabadani in the northwestern countryside of the capital Damascus near the Lebanese border, state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.

The returning families are part of 10,000 others that had fled Zabadani when the battles there were raging before the Syrian army retook it and nearby areas in April 2017, after a deal was struck for the evacuation of the rebels toward northwestern Syria.

The governor of Damascus countryside, Alaa Ibrahim, said during a tour in the city on Saturday that contracts have been signed to complete the clearing of rubble and the wreckage from the city that had started more than seven months ago.

The city has sustained huge destruction due to the intensity of the battles that had raged there, as it was one of the first that fell to the armed militants in the northwestern countryside of Damascus in January 2012.

The city has a strategic importance due to its proximity to the Lebanese border, as the rebels had used it as a conduit to smuggle fighters and weapons between Syria and Lebanon.

The Lebanese Hezbollah group has had a big role in retrieving the city to protect areas of its influence on the Lebanese side of the border.