REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MOSCOW -- Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad travelled to Moscow for his first known 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 as it announced the visit on Wednesday.

Assad's talks with one of his few remaining allies came the same day the United Nations said tens of thousands of people had fled new regime offensives in Syria.

Assad told Putin the Russian air bombardments launched on September 30 -- which have prompted an outcry 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, a third of them civilians, according to a monitoring group.

Russia insists the 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.

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