Assad makes surprise visit to Moscow

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad travelled to Moscow for his first foreign trip since the conflict broke out in his country in 2011, holding key talks on the crisis with President Vladimir Putin.

Assad, who last visited Russia in 2008, used the surprise visit on Tuesday evening to thank Putin for launching a campaign of air strikes in Syria last month, with the two leaders agreeing that military operations must be followed by political steps.

Putin pledged to continue to support Damascus militarily, while calling for a political solution involving all groups to try to end the war, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Assad's talks with one of his only allies came on the same day the United Nations said that tens of thousands of people had fled new regime offensives in Syria near the second city of Aleppo.

Assad told Putin that the Russian air bombardments launched on September 30 -- which have caused concern in the West -- had helped stop the spread of "terrorism" in his country, the Kremlin said.

The strikes are reported to have killed 370 people so far, including more than 120 civilians, according to a monitoring group.

Russia insists its air campaign is intended to target the extremist Islamic State group and others it describes as "terrorists".

But rebels and the West accuse Moscow of seeking to prop up Assad and of striking moderate and Islamist opposition forces rather than just jihadists.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Assad's lightning trip as a "working visit" at the invitation of the Kremlin, and by Wednesday morning, Assad was back in Damascus, the Syrian presidency told AFP.

It appears the Kremlin waited for the Syrian leader to return home before breaking the news of the visit.

Peskov declined to say whether the talks, which also saw the two leaders and their entourages dine together, brought any firm results.

Putin said Russia was ready to do everything it could to help secure peace in Syria, where the conflict first erupted as a peaceful uprising against the regime in March 2011.

Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes, sparking a mass migration of refugees that has raised tensions in Europe.

"We are ready to make our contribution not only during armed hostilities in the fight against terrorism but also during a political process," Putin told Assad.

The Syrian leader also stressed the importance of "further political steps," according to the Kremlin statement.