Kurdish leader and former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, dies at the age of 83

Kurdish leader and former Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, has died at the age of 83, Iraqi state TV has said.

Kurdish leader and former Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, has died at the age of 83 Source: Depo Photos/ABACAPRESS.COM

Talabani was a veteran of the Kurdish struggle for an independent state and founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 1975. In 2005, two years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, he became Iraq's first non-Arab president. He stepped down in 2014, two years after suffering a stroke that led him to seek medical treatment in Germany. 

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