Saudi, Turkish commanders ordered Aleppo attacks: Syrian minister

    "Turkish and Saudi commanders have issued the order for targeting Syrian civilians and government troops in Aleppo," Omran al-Zoubi was quoted by Arabic-language media sources as saying on Wednesday.
 
Zoubi made the remarks after around 15 people were killed as foreign-backed militants shelled two mosques, a hospital and several neighborhoods in Aleppo which has been divided between government forces and foreign-backed militants since 2012, a year after the conflict broke out in Syria. 
 
On Tuesday, another 19 people were killed and 80 more injured as militants targeted the province.
 
Zoubi also said that around 6,000 terrorists had entered Syria over the last few days.
 
Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy for Syria underlined the need for a faltering ceasefire in the country to be “brought back on track” amid the recent surge of violence.
 
    "We need to make sure the cessation of hostilities is brought back on track," Staffan de Mistura said during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
 
The truce, brokered by Russia and the United States, went into effect in late February in a bid to facilitate negotiations between the warring sides to the conflict.
 
However, the escalation of attacks by foreign-backed militants in recent weeks has left the ceasefire in tatters and torpedoed the peace talks.
 
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. De Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country's pre-war population of about 23 million.