Assad Makes Surprise Visit To Moscow

Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad has made an overseas trip to Moscow for talks with Russian President,Vladimir Putin.

The talk, held on Tuesday night, was centered to thank the Russian leader for supporting his government.

Russia launched air strikes in Syria last month against the Islamic State (ISIS) and other militant groups battling Mr Assad’s forces.

Mr Assad said that Russia’s involvement had stopped the spread of “terrorism” becoming “more widespread and harmful”.

For his part, Mr Putin said the Syrian people had been “almost alone; resisting, fighting international terrorism for several years”.

The visit was not announced until Wednesday after Mr Assad had returned to Damascus.

Syria had been embroiled in a brutal civil war for four and a half years.

The Assad regime had lost control of broad swathes of the country to opponents that include moderate forces as well as the extremist group ISIS.

His visit to Moscow is believed to have been the first time he has left the country since the civil war began in March 2011.

But Russia came to his rescue. On September 30, the Russian Air Force began pounding Assad’s opponents with airstrikes.

The Kremlin initially said the strikes were against ISIS. But it had since, acknowledged that it is intent on shoring up the Assad regime.