In pictures: Egypt holds full-honors military funeral for Mubarak

Egypt was preparing to hold a full-honors military funeral Wednesday for the country’s former autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who for decades was the face of stability in the Middle East but who was ousted from power in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that swept much of the region.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi led the funeral in a mosque complex on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital after a special Muslim death prayer was performed for Mubarak, an ex-army officer

Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Jamal as well as a grandson also attended the procession.

The body of Mubarak, draped in the Egyptian flag, was put onto a carriage with guards of honour on horses moving in the lead.

The 91-year-old Mubarak died on Tuesday at a Cairo military hospital from heart and kidney complications, according to medical documents obtained by The Associated Press. He was admitted to hospital in Jan. 21 with intestinal obstruction and underwent surgery, after which he was treated in intensive care.

An army officer carried a a placard of the medals that Mubarak had received during his life marched behind the carriage carrying his body

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi attended the service, which was to be followed later in the day by burial at the cemetery in Heliopolis. , which was to be followed by the burial at the cemetery in Cairo’s Heliopolis, Mubarak’s home district for most of his rule and where he lived until his death.

Mubarak’s funeral service was to take place at the Tantawi Mosque in eastern Cairo, named for now retired Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who headed the military council that ran Egypt following Mubarak’s ouster and until the election of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2012.

Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal, joined by soldiers, walked next to their father's coffin at a huge mosque built by the army in a Cairo suburb where the funeral took place.

“Through his military and political career, Mubarak made undeniable achievements and sacrifices,” the state-run al-Aharm newspaper eulogized Mubarak in its editorial Wednesday.

A few dozen Mubarak supporters, clad in black and carrying posters of the former president, gathered in the morning at a mosque complex in a the eastern New Cairo neighborhood, where Mubarak’s body was to be brought for the funeral service later in the day.

Born in May 1928, Mubarak was vice president on Oct. 6, 1981, when his mentor, President Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by Islamic extremists while reviewing a military parade. Seated next to Sadat, Mubarak escaped with a minor hand injury as gunmen sprayed the reviewing stand with bullets. Eight days later, the brawny former air force commander was sworn in as president, promising continuity and order.

Pictures from Mubarak funeral east of Cairo

Dozens of Mubarak supporters, some from his home village Kafr al-Meselha in the Nile Delta, gathered outside the mosque, where the military funeral will take place. "I am happy that his pride was restored" after his removal, "and for the state's appreciation for him after his death," said Zeenat Touhami, a 35-year old woman from Cairo. "This is the history of 30 years, the farewell of 30 years".

Egypt's top military officials were expected to attend the funeral. Mubarak's coffin was to be airlifted from the Field Marshall Tantawi mosque to the family burial grounds (shown in picture), state television reported.