SYRIA’s Foreign Ministry protested to the United Nations in New York on Sunday over Western-backed insurgents’ continued attacks on Aleppo city.

In a letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon and security council president Francois Delattre, the ministry also accused Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar of orchestrating the offensive.

It said groups protected under February’s “cessation of hostilities” had once again allied with al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, to attack Syria’s largest city from the south-west on Friday.

The Army of Islam and Ahrar as-Sham — the leading forces in the Saudi-convened High Negotiations Committee at the UN-brokered Geneva talks — are among those who indiscriminately shelled civilians districts of the city, killing scores of people.

The ministry said they were “part of the series of systematic terrorist acts plotted and prepared by the Turkish regime and perpetrated by ‘moderate opposition’ groups in co-operation and co-ordination with the Nusra Front.”

It condemned attempts by Turkey and “the other regimes supporting and sponsoring terrorism in Riyadh and Doha to undermine the efforts seeking to stop the bloodshed and to foil the Geneva talks and the truce arrangements.”

The ministry condemned security council members the US, Britain, France and Ukraine for refusing to include the Army of Islam and Ahrar as-Sham on the list of terrorist organisations excluded from the ceasefire with Nusra and Islamic State.

It accused those countries of hypocrisy and not being serious about combating terrorism.