Thousands attend funeral of former Iraqi President

Mosul (Iraq), Oct. 6 (IANS): 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.