Croatia on Saturday announced an unprecedented spike in the arrival of migrants on a long, dangerous journey towards western Europe as the continent's worst post-World War II refugee crisis showed no sign of abating.

With many of the people fleeing war and misery flocking towards Germany, a new poll showed Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity at home has been hit by her policy of openness.

Four civilians have been killed after they were caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast, security sources said Saturday. 

An ambulance driver was killed on site in the Beytussebab district of Sirnak province and three civilians wounded by mortar shells died later of their injuries at hospital, the sources told Agence France Presse. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Saudi Arabia's defense on Friday as blame shifted towards the Saudi authorities after a stampede at the hajj pilgrimage killed at least 717 people. 

"I do not sympathize with the hostile statements against Saudi Arabia," Erdogan told journalists.

The Greek coastguard on Friday said it was looking for seven migrants feared missing near the Aegean island of Kos, after rescuing 115 Syrians in a separate incident.

The search began after a migrant plucked from the Aegean Sea by a fishing boat told rescuers there had been another seven people on a boat that overturned.

Two Turkish soldiers and 34 Kurdish rebels have been killed in fighting in the southeast, where scores of people have died since the July breakdown of a ceasefire, the army said Friday.

The soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near Beytussebap district in Sirnak province on Thursday, the army's high command said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has said that the Syrian refugee crisis has had very harmful effects on Lebanon's security and economy.

“This crisis had catastrophic effects on security, development, the economy, the society and the environment,” Bassil said in a speech he gave at the Group of 77 and China meeting that was held in New York.

Blame shifted towards Saudi authorities Friday after a crush at the hajj killed at least 717 people in the worst tragedy to strike the annual Muslim pilgrimage in a quarter-century.

The disaster, which also injured several hundred people, was the second deadly accident to hit worshipers this month, after a crane collapse in the holy city of Mecca killed more than 100.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fierce critic of Bashar Assad, on Thursday suggested for the first time that the Syrian president could have a role to play in a future political transition.

"The process could possibly be without Assad, or the transitional process could be with him," Erdogan told reporters after Eid prayers in Istanbul, when asked about a possible solution to Syria's four-year civil war.

The truck with 71 dead migrants abandoned in August on an Austrian motorway had Hungarian plates and a Slovakian poultry firm's livery. But five of the six suspects since arrested are Bulgarians.

To detectives probing the dark business of human trafficking, this was no surprise. 

Turkey's electoral commission has banned the campaign song of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AFP) for November's general election as too religious, a senior member of the Islamic-rooted party said Wednesday.

Bekir Bozdag, one of the AKP's deputy leaders, said the commission had ruled that the song, "Haydi Bismillah" (Let's Go, In The Name Of God), contravened Turkey's electoral law by exploiting a religious symbol for political purposes.