Tuesday 18 December 2012

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in hospital after stroke


Jalal Talabani - archive photoMr Talabani is Iraq's first Kurdish president
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has suffered a stroke and is being treated in hospital, officials and media say.
A statement on his website said he was admitted on Monday night suffering from "fatigue and tiredness". His medical team is trying to stabilise him.
Mr Talabani struggled with his health in recent years and has often been treated abroad, correspondents say.
A veteran of the Kurdish guerrilla movement, Mr Talabani, 79, is Iraq's first president from the ethnic group.
Spokesman Ali al-Moussawi told AP that doctors were deciding whether to continue treating him in Baghdad or to fly him abroad for medical care.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is said to be at the hospital.
The president underwent heart surgery in the US in 2008, and was treated for dehydration and exhaustion in Jordan in 2007.
Mr Talabani has lived through decades of conflict with the central government and other Kurdish groups, including a period in exile, before the fall of Saddam Hussein.
He took over the mainly ceremonial presidency in the years after the 2003 invasion, and has often used the position to mediate between sectarian and ethnic groups.
Recently he brokered a deal between Baghdad and Kurdish groups to end a standoff on disputed areas on the border with the Kurdish self-rule area.

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