Bashar Assad in lightning visit to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow

Bashar Assad has travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in his first foreign trip since civil war broke out in 2011.

Vladimir Putin (R) and Bashar Assad enter a hall during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Bashar Assad has made a lightning visit to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin in the Syrian president’s first foreign trip since his country was engulfed by civil war in 2011.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov confirmed the visit and said Mr Assad held talks with the Russian President, his main backer, in Moscow

“Yesterday evening, the president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad, made a working visit to Moscow,” Mr Peskov said, adding that he met with Mr Putin.

Syrian state TV channel Ikhbariyah said the two leaders discussed the continuation of the military operations against “terrorists” in Syria.

Mr Assad was now back in Damascus, it said.

Russia began airstrikes against insurgents in Syria on Sept. 30.

The United Nations estimates at least 250,000 people have been killed in Syria in the four years since the first protests against Assad in 2011 descended into a full scale civil war.

AFP