Today, Saturday, thousands of mourners greeted the return of the coffin of Kurdistan Commando Forces Commander Martyr Akam Omar at the Sulaimani International Airport, who became a martyr on December 12, 2022. Iraqi and Kurdish military commanders, government officials, and foreign military and diplomatic delegations attended Martyr Akam's funeral in Sulaimani.

Sulaimani streets are covered in black flags to sympathize with the fallen commander who spearheaded the fight against ISIS for years and came to build a formidable Peshmergas special forces that kept the Kurdistan region and Iraq safe from terror.

In the procession, PUK President Bafel Jalal Talabani said, "we are saddened here to farewell our dear brother Akam Omar… Martyr Akam was a Kurd, a religious man who fought for Kurdistan for his people and his party, and Kak Akam [Kak is a respectful addressing of somebody] did not want anything other than defending Kurdistan and improving the Peshmerga forces."

"Martyr Akam had a fundamental role in reorganizing the Peshmerga and played a significant role in forming the special ties we have with the International Coalition," the PUK president added. The International Coalition against ISIS provided critical assistance to the Peshmerga forces to win the war against global terrorism. 

The PUK chief then spoke in English to the International Community and thanked them for assisting the Kurds. "I want to especially thank the Americans, and especially the Germans for helping Kak Akam for his treatment, and at the same time, I want to thank the Iranians for taking our wounded to Tehran," President Talabani told the foreign delegations present at the funeral process.

At the ceremony, the Kurdish and Iraqi leaders laid wreaths before the fallen commander's coffin put the Sulaimani International Airport.
His coffin was later transferred to the Peshmerga General Command Headquarters in Sulaimani for a final funeral procession before leaving for Martyr Akam's home city of Erbil, where his tomb is prepared for his burial in Erbil's Sheikh Ahmed graveyard.

Thousands of civilian and peshmerga mourners lined the blackened streets of Sulaimani dotted with black flaglets, and thousands of Peshmerga with Kurdistan flags waited on the streets as his coffin was carried to the Peshmerga headquarters in the city.

On October 19, the Kurdistan Commando Forces (KCF) led by Martyr Akam Omar launched a search operation for IS remnants in the town of Zenana in Sulaimani's Garmian district; several land mines went off on the KFC convoy, killing KCF explosives specialist Mohammed Zuhair, and the force's top commander Akam Omar. Omar was hospitalized in Sulaimani but was later moved to a hospital in Germany for better care; he became a martyr 54 days after his injuries.