Eight Turkish soldiers and 10 Kurdish rebels were killed early Tuesday in clashes in southeast Turkey, the local governor's office said.

Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and 16 wounded when members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attacked an army post at Yesiltas, near the border with Iraq and Iran, the governor's office said in a statement posted on its website.

At least 13 prisoners died late Saturday after a fire broke out amid a mutiny at a southeastern Turkish jail holding around 1,000 prisoners, officials stated.

They were killed by smoke poisoning and at least five others were hospitalized when prisoners set fire to blankets and beds in the Sanliurfa city prison, Anatolia news agency reported, citing governor Celalettin Guvenc.

Turkey's foreign minister called Saturday on the U.N. Security Council to take "a new measure" in Syria to stop the crisis there from getting worse after U.N. observers suspended their mission.

"In the event that this observer mission pulls back, there is need for the U.N. Security Council to immediately do a situation assessment and take a new measure to ensure the humanitarian tragedy does not move onto a next level," Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

A Turkish policeman was shot dead and another was wounded after unknown assailants opened fire on the officers in Istanbul, the city's police chief said Saturday.

The attack occurred in the populous neighborhood of Gaziosmanpasa, located on the European side of Istanbul, police chief Huseyin Capkin told the Anatolia news agency.

Another general has fled Syria and joined rebels camped in southeastern Turkey with plans to confront the Damascus regime, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

His identity was not disclosed for security reasons.

Turkey's top constitutional court on Friday dismissed an opposition appeal to end President Abdullah Gul's term this year, ruling that he can serve seven years.

The court also ruled that Gul can seek re-election in 2014, but only for a five-year term.

Most Turks oppose direct intervention by their country in neighboring Syria, a Turkish opinion poll revealed Friday, as the escalating conflict threatens to become outright civil war.

Fifty-seven percent said they were against Turkey intervening in Syria, while 11.7 percent said they were for a military confrontation with the Damascus regime, according to the poll sponsored by an Istanbul-based think-tank, the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM).

The number of Syrian refugees registered in Turkey has topped 30,000, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Agance France Press on Friday.

"Four hundred more Syrians crossed into Turkey on Thursday, bringing the total number to 30,800," said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.

Police detained eight people in western Turkey over alleged links to the al-Qaida network, Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

Police arrested seven suspects during simultaneous raids at different addresses in Bursa province and one in Balikesir province, Anatolia said.

Turkish security forces have shot dead four Kurdish rebels who had crossed into southeastern Turkey from Syria, local officials said late on Thursday.

A firefight erupted when the rebels were discovered crossing across the Syrian border into the town of Alakamis in the Sirnak province late on Wednesday, the local governor's office said in a statement.