Drowned Syrian toddler laid to rest

Damascus, Sept 4: A Syrian toddler whose lifeless body was found on a Turkish beach was laid to rest on Friday along with his brother and mother, the media.

Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who had drowned along with his mother Rehan and his five-year-old brother Galip while trying to reach the island of Kos in Greece, were buried in their hometown of Kobane.

The three bodies were flown to a city near Turkey's border with Syria, from where they were taken to the border town of Suruc and thence to Kobane.

Legislators from Turkey accompanied the brothers' father Abdullah Kurdi to Kobane.

The image published on Wednesday showed three-year old Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on a beach in Bodrum's Akyarlar coast of Turkey's Mugla province. He was wearing a red t-shirt, dark blue shorts and black shoes.

Four Syrians are in custody on suspicion of human trafficking in the deaths.

The children's father, Abdullah Kurdi, survived, and accompanied their bodies to Kobane, where they were buried.

"I don't know what to do," he said as the three coffins lay nearby. "I don't know what to say."

Kurdi said he will stay in the war-torn city where his family is buried.

Aylan's image has become a symbol for the desperate plight of refugees trying to escape the war and find safety in Europe.

"If these extraordinarily powerful images of a dead Syrian child washed up on a beach don't change Europe's attitude to refugees, what will?" Britain's Independent said in remarks echoed in newspapers across the continent.

Over the past week, there has been a dramatic spike in the numbers of refugees - mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa - seeking to leave Turkey by sea for Greece in the hope of building new lives in the European Union.

According to the UN on Friday, a total 200,000 migrants need immediate relocation in Europe.

Over 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year, making it the most deadly migrant crossing point in the world.

IANS