Syrian refugees return home after fleeing from ISIS
SANLIURFA, Turkey -- The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) suffered a defeat this week when Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, liberated a key Syrian town on the border with Turkey.
Refugees stampeded from the fighting. Desperate families stormed fences, barbed wire and trenches to reach safety in Turkey.
There are more refugees in the world today than any time since World War II, largely because of the disintegration of Syria and Iraq.
On Wednesday, some families went home, crossing the Turkish border to the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, liberated from ISIS after days of intense fighting.
More than 20,000 people fled the town as airstrikes targeted ISIS positions, a desperate escape for people who've lived under the extremists for over a year.
"If a woman went out without veiling her face, or a man smoked a cigarette, they'd beat them with a stick," one woman told CBS News, covering her face to hide her identity because she's still frightened of ISIS.
She and her friends said they grew used to seeing severed heads displayed in the street, left there as a warning after ISIS carried out executions.
Just 50 miles from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, the loss of the border town is a strategic blow to the extremists. ISIS used this stretch of Syria's border with Turkey to spirit foreign fighters into the war zone -- and to smuggle the oil it uses to fund its operations.
Now Tal Abyad is controlled by Kurdish fighters. In contrast to ISIS, many of their front-line soldiers are women.
But any suggestion of an ISIS collapse is premature. For Syrians who've lived through four years of civil war, peace is a very distant hope.
Only a few hundred people crossed back to Tal Abyad. After suffering under the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and then ISIS, many residents told CBS News they'll wait to see if the town's new rulers can be trusted before they return home.
