sentences:  Barzani was born in Mahabad, Imperial State of Iran in the self-declared Republic of Mahabad and succeeded his father Mustafa Barzani as leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1979.Working closely with his brother Idris Barzani until Idris's death, Barzani and various other Kurdish groups fought the forces of the Iraqi government in Baghdad during the Iran–Iraq War.Barzani has been a key leader in the historic Kurdish transition from a rebellious and repressed minority in an isolated highly traditional part of Iraq, to a prosperous and widely recognized autonomous region following the 2003 collapse of the Ba'ath regime.