Cairo, Feb 26 (IANS): Egypt held a military funeral on Wednesday for the country's former president Hosni Mubarak who died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and other Egyptian and Arab dignitaries attended the funeral, which will be followed later in the day by burial at the cemetery in Heliopolis.

The body of the former president was airlifted to a mosque complex in an eastern New Cairo neighbourhood, where the funeral service took place, Xinhua reported.

Mubarak died in hospital after undergoing treatment in an intensive care unit.

Mubarak had served as the Egyptian president for nearly 30 years until he resigned as a result of mass protests that erupted in the country in 2011.

His sons were in the helicopter that carried the body to the funeral service site.

Wrapped in the Egyptian flag, Egyptian honour guards carried the coffin in the ceremony.

On Tuesday, the presidency extended condolences to the former president's family for his services to the homeland as "a hero of October 1973 war." It announced three days of nationwide mourning.

Born in 1928 in Munofiya province in the Nile River Delta, Mubarak graduated from the Air Force Academy and worked as its director for three years.

He was appointed as Air Force Commander in 1972. Later, he was awarded for his accomplishments during the Arab-Israeli war.