Thousands attend funeral of former Iraqi President

Thousands of people on Friday bid farewell to former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who died earlier this week.

Tatabani's funeral in northern Iraq was attended by several high-level officials including President Fuad Masum, President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji, Efe news reported.

Talabani, a veteran leader of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, was in coma when he died in a German hospital on Tuesday.

His body was flown to the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, his hometown, where a red carpet and a guard of honour awaited on the tarmac on Friday.

 

The death of the 83-year-old came at a sensitive time in relations between Kurdish leaders and Baghdad.

Last week, people living in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence for the Kurdistan Region in a referendum, despite outrage in Baghdad, Iran and Turkey.

Talabani had not been well enough to give his views on the referendum, but it had been only half-heartedly backed by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, BBC reported.

He had historically opposed full Kurdish independence, arguing for semi-autonomy within a democratic Iraq.

The flight carrying Talabani's body was given special dispensation to land amid an Iraqi-government-imposed ban on international flights to the Kurdistan Region following the plebiscite.

The coffin was received by a guard of honour and given a 21-gun salute, followed by the Iraqi national anthem, on the tarmac of Sulaimaniya airport. It was then taken to the city's grand mosque.

--IANS

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