Iraq's former foreign minister Tariq Aziz suffers stroke - Summary

Baghdad - Former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz has lost the ability to talk after suffering from a stroke, the Dubai-based broadcaster al-Arabiya reported Sunday. Aziz's son Ziad, who is based in Amman, told al-Arabiya that his father was rushed into the US hospital in Baghdad on Friday after suffering a severe stroke.

In March, Aziz, 73, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in executing 42 merchants in 1992. He was in jail in a prison in western Baghdad when he suffered the stroke.

Aziz rose to international prominence as the only Christian politician in Saddam Hussein's regime. A 1980 attack on Aziz by a Shiite Islamist group was used as a pretext by Iraq to start the 1980-1988 war with Shiite Iran.

After the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, he surrendered to US troops on shortly after the fall of Baghdad. He has reportedly been in poor health since, with what media reports say is lung disease.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304276,iraqs-former-foreign-minister-tariq-aziz-suffers-stroke--summary.html.