Ex-Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani died on Tuesday (October 3rd) in Germany, officials in his party told AFP.
Talabani, 83, was Iraq's president from 2005 to 2014 and a key figure in Iraq's Kurdish region.
"Our leader died in Germany," an official with Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said.
A family member said Talabani's health had taken a turn for the worse and he had been transported to Germany, along with his wife and two children.
Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker Zana Said paid tribute to Talabani as "the only president whose death saddens Arabs, Kurds and all other ethnicities".
"We pray to God that his death will help to bring back good relations between the brothers of Iraq."
