Shafaq News– Erbil (Updated at 17:45)

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Friday offered his condolences to Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ali Al-Sistani, following the death of his brother, Ayatollah Hadi Al-Sistani.

In a post on X, Barzani said he had received with sorrow the news of the death and extended his sympathies to Ali Al-Sistani and the family.

Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani also issued a message of condolence, praying that God grant patience and comfort to the bereaved family.

Hadi Al-Sistani, born in the 1930s and the younger brother of the Najaf-based religious authority, died earlier today in the Iranian city of Qom after a period of illness. He was known within clerical circles as a religious scholar associated with the Najaf and Qom seminaries, two of the most prominent centers of Shiite learning.