Why Some Iraqi Exiles Are Returning Home

(Fox News) - The Iraqi government says more than 3,000 Iraqi families that were driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned home in the past three months — because of the decline in sectarian violence.

One businessman says before he and his family fled to Syria — streets were deserted by mid-afternoon and shops were closed. He says now stores stay open until 10 at night — and the U.S. military working with the neighborhood council is handing out $2,000 grants to new and returning shop owners.

A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed. Once full flights from Baghdad are now virtually empty — and flights headed the other way have considerably more passengers.