For displaced Syrians, an offer to return home presents agonizing choices
ARSAL, Lebanon - Standing in a crush of trucks and cars, Khadija Rifai watched her sons load a beat-up minivan with crates of lettuce, tomatoes and zucchini.
After four years as refugees in Lebanon, she and her husband were about to join a convoy home to Syria. But five sons and four daughters with families of their own were staying behind in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.
"Now is not the time for the youth to go back," Rifai said. "They will have to go into the army, and security is not 100 percent."
Two sons ran up and kissed her hand. Another tucked a few more rounds of flat bread on the dashboard. A niece buried her face in her headscarf and sobbed.
"Don't worry about me," Rifai told them with a reassuring smile. "I will be waiting
