Vehicles transporting Syrian refugees from Lebanon are seen at the Zamrani crossing in the countryside of Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 1, 2018. Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned to Syria from Lebanon on Monday, in response to the renewed calls by the Syrian government for refugees to return, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned to Syria from Lebanon on Monday, in response to the renewed calls by the Syrian government for refugees to return, state news agency SANA reported.

The latest batch of Syrian refugees returned through three border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, in an ongoing Russia-backed process of returning Syrian refugees from Lebanon.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in a recent televised interview that the Syrian refugees abroad are welcome to return and take part in the rebuilding of Syria.

Al-Moallem made the same call during the UN assembly last week.

Lebanon is hosting 976,000 registered Syrian refugees according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, while the government estimates the true number of Syrian refugees in the country at 1.5 million.

Out of an estimated pre-war 22-million population in Syria in 2016, 13.5 million were identified by the United Nations as in need of humanitarian assistance, with more than 6 million forced into internal displacement, and about 5 million fleeing abroad.