Kurdi Family Buried Alongside ISIS Victims in Kobane

The three members of the Kurdi family who drowned in the Mediterranean after attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos earlier this week have been buried in a silent funeral in their Syrian hometown of Kobane.

Rehan Kurdi, 35, and her two sons, three-year-old Aylan and five-year-old Galip, were laid to rest in the city's "martyrs' graveyard" alongside a number of Syrian-Kurds who were killed when ISIS besieged the city in October last year and again in June, after they were initially repelled by Kurdish militiamen.

The funeral was attended by around 300 people and only remained at the grave site for 15 minutes for security reasons. Mass gatherings in the city are now cut short because of the threat that ISIS may launch another offensive. The bodies were taken to Kobane from the Turkish border town of Suruc, where a suicide bomb, suspected of being linked to ISIS, killed 32 Kurdish activists travelling to the war-weary Syrian city in July.

The service was carried out in complete silence and the people of Kobane are now going to gather for a traditional Kurdish memorial ceremony, according to Nuri Kino, the director and founder of the Middle Eastern advocacy group A Demand for Action.

"I was on the phone and heard the crying while the pictures were sent over to me online," says the activist who operates from Sweden using an extensive network of contacts on the ground in Syrian territory. "It was very hard to act professional and not burst into tears. This is one family."

The plight of the Kurdi family came to international attention when a picture of Aylan Kurdi lying face-down on Bodrum beach after a failed attempt to cross to Greece was shared around the world.

Dorpec Kobane, a Swedish-Kurdish photographer and local doctor who attended the funeral, said that the world must do more to prevent "martyrs' graveyard" being filled with the bodies of innocent people.

"We feel that Kobane has been forgotten. Why has the whole world turned away? Do they want ISIS to eradicate us? he asks. "Do something for these children, we don't want anyone to be killed here or drown in boats."

The call came as British Prime Minister David Cameron bowed to pressure and changed his position on taking in more Syrian refugees, announcing on Friday that "thousands" more would be settled in the country in response to the crisis on Europe's borders. He said that Britain would act with its "head and heart" and announced that the extra 4,000 refugees, confirmed by the U.N. refugee agency, would come from U.N. camps on the border with Syria.