Turkey's ruling party named a loyal ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the new prime minister Thursday, with the incoming premier immediately vowing to "work in total harmony" with the strongman leader.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will officially appoint Transport Minister Binali Yildirim as its chairman Sunday, meaning he will automatically become prime minister.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded on Wednesday in an attack on a military convoy blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the army said.

The military convoy was traveling on the road between Semdinli and Aktutun in the southeastern Hakkari province when it was hit by the roadside bomb left by the "separatist terror group", the army said, using its customary phrase for the PKK.

The Turkish parliament on Tuesday began debating a hugely controversial bill that would strip dozens of deputies of their parliamentary immunity and which pro-Kurdish lawmakers say is directly aimed at driving them out of the legislature.

The bill has already led to unprecedented scenes at the committee stage with angry deputies exchanging blows with their fists and even feet rather than discussing the document.

Turkey on Tuesday buried over a dozen victims of a massive blast in its southeast last week that killed 16 people when a truck laden with explosives by Kurdish militants planning a major attack detonated prematurely.

The initial toll from the blast outside the southeast's main city of Diyarbakir on Thursday night was far lower and Turkish authorities only confirmed Monday 13 more victims had been identified and a total of 16 people lost their lives.

Turkish authorities were on Monday working to confirm the fates of at least 12 civilians who are missing and feared dead after a huge blast last week blamed on Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, reports and official sources said.

The mainly Kurdish region of Diyarbakir was on Thursday night rocked by a massive explosion that was also felt in the city center and was later said to have been caused by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants loading explosives onto a truck.

Members of Turkey's right-wing MHP party were prevented from holding a congress Sunday aimed at unseating longtime leader Devlet Bahceli and recovering ground lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party.

Dissidents from the Nationalist Movement Party launched a campaign to oust Bahceli, 68, after a general election in November in which the party shed half its support -- taking just 40 seats in the 550-member parliament compared to 80 five months previously.

Doctors Without Borders on Friday slammed the EU-Turkey deal to stem the influx of migrants to the bloc as a "historic abdication" of Europe's moral and legal responsibilities.

The medical charity, which goes by its French acronym MSF, voiced "profound concern" at the deal, under which Turkey has agreed to take back Syrian migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for political incentives including billions of euros in aid and visa-free European travel for its citizens.

Six Turkish soldiers were killed on Friday in a clash with Kurdish militants in the southeast of the country while two more lost their lives when a military helicopter sent to the scene crashed, the army said.

The six troops were killed and eight others wounded in fighting with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) near a military base in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province.

Turkey is preparing to "clean" the Syrian side of the border of Islamic State jihadists after a Turkish border town came under repeated deadly rocket attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

"We are doing all the necessary preparations to clean the other side of the border because of the problems in Kilis," Erdogan said amid persistent speculation of a possible Turkish cross-border ground operation, without giving details on the preparations.

A deal to grant Turks visa-free travel to most of the European Union was hanging by a thread Thursday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defiantly vowed Ankara would not fulfill a key condition set by Brussels.

With alarm growing over the deal's future, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker bluntly told Erdogan that Turks would only enjoy travel to the passport-free Schengen area if all conditions were met and it would be "his problem" if this failed to materialize.