The return of displaced Syrian Kurds to their northeastern hometown of Ras al-Ain was suspended on Monday after a first group of returnees was attacked, prompting protests in other Kurdish-majority parts of Syria. Hundreds of people had gone back to the town on Monday, months after a January agreement with the Syrian government on merging Kurdish forces and civil institutions into the state that included provisions for the return of displaced Kurds. Jawan Isso, from a committee representing displaced people from Ras al-Ain, told AFP that a "first batch" of around 2,500 people were headed home but were later attacked by "armed groups". In Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town in the north, Syrian state television said people attacked government offices and took down the Syrian flag in front of the local security forces headquarters. Isso said that around 100,000 people from the Ras al-Ain area had applied to return.