Loyalist forces in Yemen backed by a Saudi-led coalition killed at least 20 Iran-backed insurgents Saturday, the military said, as they pressed their offensive on the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

Twelve other rebels were captured in the operation launched on the northwestern edge of Marib province, a key battleground in the fight for control of the capital, said a military official

Saudi Arabia deployed large numbers of special forces Saturday as pilgrims performed the final rituals of a hajj marred by double tragedy, with the toll from a stampede rising to 769.

Health Minister Khaled al-Falih announced the new figure, an increase from the previous toll of 717.

Iran urged Saudi Arabia on Saturday to locate more than 340 of its nationals still missing in the aftermath of the deadly stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage.

So far, 136 Iranians are known to have been killed and 102 injured, said the head of Iran's hajj organisation, Said Ohadi, in the worst tragedy in a quarter-century at the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites in western Saudi Arabia.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri criticized on Saturday Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's position saying that the latter has linked the fate of Lebanon's presidency to that in Syria, dimming the hopes to have a head of state.

“Sayyed Hassan has announced that Lebanon will not have a president before knowing the fate of the presidency in Syria,” said Hariri via twitter.

Iran's state TV says Ghazanfar Roknabadi, a former ambassador to Lebanon, is among those missing after at least 719 pilgrims died in a stampede during the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

The Saturday broadcast said two Iranian state TV reporters and a prominent political analyst are also missing. At least 134 Iranian pilgrims died and 85 were injured in the Thursday incident, while 354 Iranian pilgrims remain missing, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia's top religious leader says a stampede which killed 717 pilgrims was beyond human control, official media reported on Saturday, the final day of this year's hajj.

The stampede was the worst disaster in a quarter-century to strike the annual event and drew fierce criticism of the Saudi authorities' handling of safety, particularly from regional rival Iran.

A Saudi prince has been arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly trying to force a woman to perform oral sex on him at a Beverly Hills mansion.

Officer Drake Madison, of the Los Angeles police department, told AFP that Prince Majed Abdulaziz al-Saud was arrested in the early afternoon Wednesday after police were called to the gated compound.

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.

Iran demanded Friday that it and other affected countries be represented in the Saudi investigation into the stampede that killed more than 700 pilgrims, including 131 Iranians, at this year's hajj.

"Countries such as Iran, which have suffered so much, should be represented in the inquiry to determine the causes of the catastrophe and to gain assurances that it will not be repeated in the future," First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said after an extraordinary session of the cabinet.

Gunmen opened fire on two Saudi police posts in the northwest of the Gulf kingdom killing two civilians and a policeman, the official news agency SPA reported on Friday.

It said two masked assailants shot dead two Saudis in Al-Shamli, in the Hail region, on Thursday and a gunman killed a policeman at the traffic police station in a second attack in the town half an hour later.