Egypt holds funeral for former president Mubarak

Egypt held a military funeral in Cairo on Wednesday to bury its former president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising against corruption.

Horses drew Mubarak's coffin draped in the Egyptian flag at a mosque complex, followed by a procession led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's top military brass, Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal and other Egyptian and Arab dignitaries.

Mubarak died on Tuesday (February 25) in intensive care weeks after undergoing surgery, leaving Egyptians divided over his legacy presiding over an era of stagnation and repression, which some nevertheless recall as more stable than the chaos that followed.

He was swept out of power as an early victim of the "Arab Spring" revolutions that swept the region in 2011.

He spent many of the subsequent years in jail and military hospitals before being freed in 2017.

Egypt's presidency and armed forces mourned the former air force officer as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The presidency declared three days of national mourning.