Algeria Minister Meets Syria's Assad on Rare Visit

Syrian President Bashar Assad met with an Algerian minister on Monday, in a rare Arab ministerial visit to the war-torn country, state media reported.

Assad thanked Algeria's minister for the Arab League, Abdelkader Messahel, that Algiers was standing by Damascus in the five-year conflict, SANA news agency reported.

They discussed "the danger of terrorism and the importance of uniting efforts of all countries to fight it", SANA said.

Messahel's mission to Damascus follows Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem's visit to Algeria in late March.

Algeria has systematically abstained in Arab League votes slapping sanctions on the Assad regime.

Syria was suspended from the pan-Arab body in 2011 over its brutal response to anti-government protests that escalated into a multi-sided conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

Assad has compared his country's war against rebels to the conflict between security forces and Islamist militants that devastated Algeria during the 1990s.