Turkish authorities on Thursday released two British reporters working for U.S.-based media outlet Vice News who were being held on terror charges in a case that amplified concerns over press freedom in the country.

But their Iraqi translator remained under arrest on charges of assisting the Islamic State extremist group, legal sources told AFP, quoting a court decision.

The family of toddler Aylan whose lifeless body washed ashore on a Turkish beach had been repeatedly displaced by Syria's brutal four-year war, a local journalist said Thursday.

Images of the child wearing a red T-shirt and blue shorts spread like wildfire through social media and his plight has dominated international headlines, in a heart-rending symbol of the mortal risks faced by tens of thousands of refugees desperate to reach Europe by sea.

Four Turkish police were killed Thursday in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the country's southeast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), sources told Agence France Presse.

The attack is latest deadly strike on the security forces blamed on the PKK since the Turkish government launched a major "anti-terrorist" campaign against the Kurdish militants in July.

Harrowing pictures of a drowned Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach brought home the horror of the escalating refugee crisis Thursday as Europe was accused of letting the Mediterranean become a "cemetery" for migrants.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bluntly blamed EU states for the death of every single migrant who lost their lives making the perilous journey to Europe.

The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party in Turkey said Wednesday it was "impossible" to hold snap polls in November because of the surge in violence between security forces and Kurdish rebels. 

"The (necessary) conditions don't exist in the southeast to hold the elections. Our comrades who returned from the region have nothing good to say," Selahattin Demirtas was quoted as saying on the Hurriyet newspaper's website. 

At least 12 Syrian migrants trying to reach Greece drowned Wednesday when two boats sank in Turkish waters, the Turkish coastguard and media said, as an image of a toddler's lifeless body washed ashore sparked horrified reactions on social media.

The Turkish coastguard said in a statement that two boats had sunk after separately setting off from Turkey's Bodrum peninsula for the Greek Aegean island of Kos early Wednesday.

Gunmen kidnapped at least 18 Turkish employees of a company building a football stadium in Baghdad on Wednesday, officials said, but it was not immediately clear who was holding them.

Dozens of Turks have been kidnapped in Iraq by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group over the past 18 months and later released, but the latest abductions took place in Sadr City, a stronghold of Shiite paramilitary forces.

A large weapons stash was discovered Tuesday on a cargo ship off the Greek island of Crete, a police source said, with initial information suggesting it sailed from Turkey and was headed for Libya.

Greek port police boarded the Haddad 1 and found shotguns in a shipping container, although no details were given on the other weapons found.

Turkey's new caretaker government that includes the first ever representatives from a pro-Kurdish party and a veiled minister held its first meeting on Tuesday to prepare to rule until snap polls in November.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu formed the so-called "election cabinet" after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the polls following inconclusive polls on June 7.

Turkish police on Tuesday staged a major swoop on the Ankara-based offices of a media group critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after two British reporters were jailed on hugely controversial terror charges.

The raids on Koza-Ipek Media sparked fresh concern about deteriorating press freedoms in Turkey, which is gearing up for a snap November legislative election, its second in five months.