title: Russian defense minister, Syria's Assad meet in Damascus: agencies
text: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday to discuss the war in Syria, Russian news agencies cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying. The ministry said Shoigu visited Syria on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He and Assad discussed military cooperation between Russia and Syria, as well as the countries  joint efforts to defeat Islamic State in Syria, the news agencies reported. 