BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) -
Vladimir Putin met
Bashar al-Assad in
Damascus on Tuesday, the
Russian leader's second trip to
Syria since
Moscow intervened decisively on the Syrian president's behalf in the country's civil war.
The visit comes at a time of heightened regional tension - Assad's other main military ally,
Iran, has said it will retaliate against the
United States for the killing of an Iranian general in a drone strike.
Qassem Soleimani, who was one of the key figures in Syria's war as the architect of Iranian military operations in the
Middle East, had just arrived in
Iraq from Syria when he was killed by a U.S. drone on Friday at Baghdad airport.