Mustafa Barzani

Mustafa Barzani, also known as Mullah Mustafa, was a Kurdish nationalist leader who lived from 1903 to 1979 and became one of the most prominent figures in modern Kurdish politics. He was chosen as leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1946 and remained the main political and military leader of the Kurdish separatist movement until his death. In the short lived Kurdish republic at Mahabad in Iran he served as Minister of Defense and commander of its army, and after years of exile in the Soviet Union he returned to Iraq in 1958. He later led the peshmerga in armed campaigns against the Iraqi and Iranian governments, including the fighting against Baghdad in the early 1960s.