A Syrian passenger plane is seen after it was forced to land at Ankara airport on October 10, 2012.
- Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to meet with Turkey's foreign minister
- The scheduled talks come amid rising tensions between Turkey and Syria
- Syria forces kill "scores" of rebels near the Turkish border, state-run TV reports
- At least 22 rebels are injured in a Syrian government airstrike, rights group says
(CNN) -- The joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria was due in Turkey on Saturday for talks aimed at putting a lid on boiling diplomatic tensions between Damascus and Ankara.
Lakhdar Brahimi's visit to Turkey comes amid growing concern that Syria's civil war could spill over into neighboring countries and destabilize the region.
Brahimi was expected to meet with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and possibly, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.
It was not immediately known when Brahimi would meet with Turkish officials.
His arrival follows reports that Turkey used F-16 fighter jets to force a Syrian airliner en route from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara, where it was searched for weapons.
The prime minister has said Turkey confiscated military supplies "traveling from Russia's agency that exports weapons munitions and military supplies to Syria's defense ministry."
Russia and Syria vehemently deny. Russia's foreign minister said the material seized was radar equipment, not arms.
Turkey has since diverted its civilian planes to avoid using Syrian airspace, saying it was unsafe.
The tussle over the search of the Syrian airliner follows the cross-border shelling two weeks ago of a Turkish border town that left five civilians dead. Turkey retaliated with a strike against a Syrian military facility near the border.
It's unclear what, if anything, Brahimi can do to calm tensions between the two countries.
Two years ago, Syria and Turkey enjoyed cozy bilateral relations. The neighbors had instituted visa-free travel for their citizens, and cross-border trade was booming.
Diplomatic relations ruptured, however, months after the Syrian uprising began. Last March, Turkey shuttered its embassy in Damascus and the Syrian government declared Turkey's ambassador, Omer Onhon, persona non grata.
Erdogan has repeatedly denounced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, publicly calling on him to step down after accusing him of massacring his own people. The Syrian government, meanwhile, has accused Turkey of arming and funding Syrian rebels.
CNN journalists have witnessed light weapons in the form of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns coming from Turkey to Syrian rebels.
In addition, Turkey is currently hosting more than 93,000 Syrian refugees in camps. Turkish officials estimate an additional 40,000 to 50,000 unofficial refugees live in Turkey outside refugee camps.
Rebels, government forces battle for military base
Al-Assad's forces killed "scores" of rebels in a battle Saturday near a military base in the northern Syrian town of Tal Abayad, near the Turkish border, Syrian state-run TV reported.
Rebels having been battling government troops on-and-off in recent weeks in an attempt to take control of the base, which was targeted by Turkey in an retaliatory strike after Syrian artillery struck a Turkish border village.
The opposition, meanwhile, reported 22 rebel fighters were wounded in a government airstrike while trying to storm a military camp in the northern province of Idlib, also close to the Turkish border, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
An estimated 30,000 people have been killed in fighting in Syria since March 2011 when government protesters took to the streets calling for political reform. Al-Assad's brutal crackdown on protesters spawned an armed conflict.
CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.
