Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves for Russia next Wednesday to discuss the developments in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his office announced Thursday.

"Significant regional and international developments led by Syria are on the table to be discussed thoroughly," during Erdogan's visit, the written statement said.

Israeli aid groups are working with Western organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan, MP Ayoob Kara told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Turkey said it has found no traces of explosives on the wreckage of a fighter jet it has claimed was downed by Syria, raising new questions about the incident that inflamed cross-border tensions.

"No traces of explosives or flammable products were found on the debris recovered from the sea," a statement from Turkey's general staff said on Wednesday, adding that other material was still being examined.

President Michel Suleiman will head to Turkey in the upcoming two days to address the case of the 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Tuesday, Speaker Nabih Berri revealed the information to the families of the abducted men.

A fire in a camp for Syrian refugees in southern Turkey killed at least two people and left others injured on Friday, the Anatolia news agency reported, saying the cause was not immediately known.

The blaze occurred in Yayladagi camp in southern Turkey's Hatay province, near the border with Syria, the agency said, as television pictures showed thick columns of smoke rising and firefighters and refugees battling the flames.

Turkish leaders observed a moment of silence Friday at the funeral of two pilots of a fighter jet shot down by Syria last month in an incident that has escalated tensions between the two former allies.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan interrupted his vacation to attend the ceremony at the Erhac airbase, from which the F-4 Phantom took off before Syrian defense forces downed it over the Mediterranean Sea on June 22.

Syrian President Bashar Assad insisted he enjoyed popular support in his own country and said foreign intervention was mainly to blame for the conflict, in an interview published Thursday.

"At the end of the day, we are human too," he told the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.

A Syrian general and a number of soldiers defected and crossed into Turkey on Wednesday, the 15th such high-ranking officer to flee the conflict-wracked nation, a Turkish diplomat said.

A total of 66 people fled into Turkey from Syria on Wednesday, including the general and two colonels as well as soldiers and their families, the diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

The bodies of the two pilots of a Turkish jet that was downed by Syria on June 22 have been recovered at the bottom of the eastern Mediterranean sea, the Turkish army said Wednesday.

"The bodies (of the two pilots) have been recovered in seabed and work is underway to bring them to surface," the army command said on a statement posted on its website.

Flash flooding caused by torrential rains has killed eight people, including at least four children in northern Turkey, authorities said Wednesday.

The downpours caused a river to burst its banks late Tuesday, inundating homes and shops and stranding cars in the Black Sea port city of Samsun, the state-run Anadolu agency reported Wednesday.