Bereaved father returns to Syria to bury 2 sons and wife

The father of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in an image that shocked the world returned to his hometown of Kobani on Friday to bury his family, an AFP photographer reported.

Abdullah Kurdi arrived at the Turkish border town of Suruc with the funeral caskets of his son, wife and another son who also drowned while trying to get to Europe.

The car carrying the father and the caskets entered Kobani and returned to Turkey, while a convoy of journalists and activists was stopped at the border.

Twelve Syrian migrants drowned on Wednesday when two boats sank in Turkish waters as they were heading towards the Greek island of Kos, in the latest tragedy to hit migrants in the Aegean.

A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, 3, after a number of migrants died and a smaller number were reported missing after boats carrying them to the Greek island of Kos capsized, near the Turkish resort of Bodrum, September 2, 2015. (AP/DHA)

But attention has focused on three-year-old Aylan, whose tiny body was photographed washed up on a beach in the resort of Bodrum in an image that quickly became a viral symbol of the tragedy of refugees.

An AFP journalist on the Syrian side of the border said that preparations were under way to bury the Kurdi family members as “martyrs of Kobani who lost their lives to flee the war.”

This handout photo courtesy of Tima Kurdi shows Alan Kurdi, left, and his brother Galib Kurdi. The body of 3-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi was found on a Turkish beach after the small rubber boat he, his 5-year old brother Galib and their mother, Rehan, were in capsized during a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece. The family stated that the spelling of the boys’ names had been changed by Turkish authorities to Aylan and Galip, but were in fact spelled as Alan and Galib. (Photo courtesy of Tima Kurdi /The Canadian Press via AP)