Dozens of Turkish truck drivers on Saturday accused Free Syrian Army rebels of having burned and looted their lorries as they captured a border post in Syria from government troops.

A group of truck owners, traders and transporters who have braved Syria's highways despite the bloody conflict have been waiting since Friday at Turkey's Cilvegozu border crossing, opposite Syria's Bab al-Hawa post.

Turkish officials Saturday blamed sabotage for a fire on a pipeline carrying Iraqi crude to a Mediterranean port from where it is transported to world markets, Anatolia news agency reported.

The fire on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline erupted late Friday between the villages of Sogutlu and Senkoy in southeastern Turkey, the governor of Mardin province, Mardin Turhan Ayvaz said, blaming it on "sabotage.

A head-on collision between a minibus and small truck killed 13 people and injured 12 in northeastern Turkey on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The accident happened on the outskirts of the town of Agri, near the border with Iran.

Syrian rebels seized control of the Bab al-Hawa border post with Turkey on Friday after a fierce battle with Syrian troops, an Agence France Presse photographer at the scene reported.

The carcasses of burnt-out lorries were scattered across the scene of the battle. Some 150 armed rebel fighters were in control of the post, which lies opposite Turkey's Cilvegozu border crossing in the southern province of Hatay.

In Turkey, the land of kebabs and sweet lokum, expanding waistlines are the target of a new anti-obesity campaign by the government to help one million Turks slim down over the next year.

The numbers are staggering: a little over one out of every three people is obese, according to health ministry figures. Even more when it comes to women.

Two Syrian brigadier generals crossed into Turkey overnight, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Agence France Presse Wednesday.

"Some 330 Syrians including two brigadier generals fled to Turkey Tuesday night," the official said.

Al-Jazeera television aired Tuesday a video it received from the abductors of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria in May, in which the kidnappers announced they will release two of the captives.

“In response to the appeal of the Muslim Scholars Committee in Lebanon, we will hand over two of the guests in our custody to their families under the supervision of the Muslim Scholars Committee in Lebanon and the state of Qatar,” the abductors said in what they dubbed “Statement Number 3.”

A Syrian general and several soldiers crossed into Turkey on Monday, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse, bringing the number of defections by generals from Bashar Assad's embattled regime to at least 18.

Turkey has become home to dozens of defectors who have crossed the border and formed the Free Syrian Army in opposition to Assad's regime.

The Iraqi government on Tuesday urged its citizens in strife-hit Syria to return home because of "increasing attacks" on them and warned Turkey against "any violations" of its territory and airspace.

"Iraqis are guests who live temporarily in Syria and the Iraqi government calls on them to return to the country," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said.

A fire that broke out at a 42-storey building in the heart of Istanbul on Tuesday was contained after a massive intervention by fire engines and emergency teams who rushed to the scene, media reported.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries and the fire engulfing the exterior facade of the building was contained, the Anatolia news agency said.