Syria's UN Ambassador Bashadr Ja'afari said on Thursday that his government "is not seeking any escalation with any of its neighbors, including Turkey."

The envoy made the remarks to the media here following an inflammatory border incident in which artillery shelling fired from Syria killed five Turkish civilians in the Sanliurfa province of Turkey.

The ambassador read a letter he had given to the president of the UN Security Council, calling for cooperation from the Turkish government "within the framework of respect national sovereignty and good neighborly relations."

The letter offered its "deepest condolences" to the people of Turkey over the civilian lives lost in the incident and said it was still making investigations.

It is important to "act wisely, rationally and responsibly" regarding border incidents, said Ja'afari.

According to him, Turkey, in response to the border incident, launched artillery shelling into Syria starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday and stopped at midnight. Turkish troops then resumed the shelling Thursday morning until 7 a.m., injuring two Syrian army officers.

"Our forces practiced self-restraint and did not respond to this Turkish artillery shelling," he said.

Turkey's "policies toward Syria are wrong and have been wrong since the beginning of the crisis," the ambassador charged.

The UN envoy said his country has a "keen interest" in maintaining good relations with Turkey, asking for their assistance in "combating terrorist groups and armed groups infiltrating through our borders."

The al-Nusra front, a group of fighters linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network, claimed responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 33 people in Aleppo on Wednesday.

Ja'afari said he has distributed a second letter to the Security Council, urging it to react to the bombings and officially condemn the terrorist attack.