Damascus filed a complaint to the United Nations on Sunday in which it condemned shelling by Turkish artillery of Syrian territories targeting Syrian Kurds and Syrian army sites.

Foreign and Expatriates Ministry voiced the government’s strong condemnation of Turkey’s repeated attacks on the Syrian people and its transgression into the Syrian territory.

“Turkish artillery shelling of Syrian territory constitutes direct support to the armed terrorist organizations,” the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry told the UN Secretary General and the Security Council’s Chairman in two letters addressed to both officials.

The Turkish attack was launched on Saturday afternoon and continued on as the Turkish artillery also targeted the civilian populated villages of Maranaz, al-Malkieh, Minnegh, Ein Daqneh and Bazi, according to the letters.

The shelling came in response to the Syrian Arab army’s advance on military fronts in the northern countryside of Aleppo province and in a bid to boost the morale of the armed terrorist organizations, the Ministry clarified.

The Turkish attacks, the letters said, were coupled with statements made by the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that confirmed Turkey’s blatant intervention in the Syrian affair and the continued Turkish support to Nusra Front and other al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations.

These statements, the Ministry said, officially attested to the Turkish regime’s premeditated acts of violating the Security Council’s resolutions related to combating terrorism.

The Syrian government expresses strong condemnation of Turkey’s repeated attacks on the Syrian people and its transgression into the Syrian territory, calling these attacks “a gross violation” of the Syrian sovereignty and a flagrant breach of the UN Charter’s objectives and principles, the rules of the international law and the Security Council’s counterterrorism resolutions, the letters said, according to SANA news agency.

Syria, however, stresses that it will maintain its legitimate right to respond to the Turkish crimes and attacks and to claim compensation for the damage caused, the letters added.