In Syria this week, civilians are finally returning home after nearly 14 years of civil war

displaced millions and left the country both divided and destroyed.

Assad regime checkpoints that used to sever any chance of seeing loved ones,

now gone like the government that manned them.

Special correspondent Laila Mulana Allen spoke to families across that nation

in Jabar, Holmes, and the northwestern city of Azaz, who are overjoyed to be reunited,

but now face the daunting task of rebuilding their homes and their families.

The desolate wreckage that once was home.

Bittersweet memories rise from every dusty track newly carved through the rubble.

As Syria's newfound freedom opens up roads long blocked to most,

Syrians are crossing the country in their thousands

to return to homes they fled under Assad's brutal bombardment

that they thought they'd never see again.

My memories of this area are so beautiful, full of flowers of jasmine.

It was more like heaven than earth.

But what they find there brings it all back.

Yasser and Aseli watched his beloved hometown of Jobar destroyed house by house a decade ago,

as they refused to surrender to regime forces.

And here was my study where I used to read. This is the house I was raised in. My life is here

and everything I've worked for. It's destroyed now. His neighbor's gone. His community torn apart.

Yasser knows it will never be the same, but he wants to try. I want to rebuild it brick by brick.

I just want to go back home. I swear to God, I'll get a tent and put it here on the rubble of my house.

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