Middle East News
Iraqi Shiite leader dies of cancer in Iran (1st Lead)
Aug 26, 2009, 10:43 GMT
Baghdad/Tehran - The Head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council Abdulaziz al-Hakim has died at a Tehran hospital on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, the Iranian new network Khabar reported.
Al-Hakim died shortly after the party's television station al-Furat announced that the powerful Shiite leader was in critical condition.
The Shiite leader, who has been the head of the Council since the assassination of his elder brother Mohamed Baqer al-Hakim in an explosion in the southern Iraqi holy city of Najaf in 2003, was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2007 at a Texas hospital.
Al-Hakim, 60, chose treatment in Iran rather than the US reflecting his close links to Iraq's neighbour, which helped found his party in the early 1980s. Iran had hosted al-Hakim in exile for around 20 years during Saddam Hussein's rule.
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