Powerful Iraqi Shiite leader dies in Iran
August 26th, 2009
BAGHDAD—Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the scion of a revered clerical family who channeled rising Shiite Muslim power after the fall of Saddam Hussein to become one of Iraq’s most influential politicians, died Wednesday in Iran, the country that was long his key ally. He was 59.
The calm, soft-spoken al-Hakim, who died of lung cancer, was a kingmaker in Iraq’s politics, working behind the scenes as the head of the country’s biggest Shiite political party.