Iraqi people walk past a picture of former President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 4, 2017. Iraqi former President and the leader of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talabani died Tuesday, the Iraqi official television reported. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)
BAGHDAD, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday declared three-day mourning for the death of former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Abadi "sent his condolences to the people of Iraq on the death of the late former President of Iraq Jalal Talabani, and declared mourning for three days starting from Wednesday," said a statement by the prime minister's office.
Abadi also sent a plane to Germany to bring back the body of Talabani, it added.
Saadi Beera, spokesman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Talabani, said Talabani's body will arrive in the Kurdistan region on Friday and be buried on Saturday in the city of Sulaimaniyah.
On Tuesday, Jalal Talabani, also a Kurdish leader in Iraq, died at age 84, a week after Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region held a referendum on independence.
Talabani, a veteran leader of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, stepped down as president in 2014, after a long period of treatment following a stroke in 2012.
Talabani, who suffered a stroke, was admitted to a hospital in Germany, where his health deteriorated and passed away.
Talabani was a leading Kurdish statesman and founder of the PUK, one of the two ruling parties in the autonomous Kurdish region.
He was known as Iraq's peacemaker, who played a vital role in the country's unity since after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But his health condition and long absence have caused a decline in his influence.
Talabani was elected as president in 2005, the first non-Arab to take the post, two years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab.
The death of the Kurdish leader came as tensions are running high between the Baghdad government and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan after the Kurdish region held a controversial referendum on independence of Kurdistan and disputed areas.
