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Former Iraqi duputy PM Aziz dies of heart attack in prison

Xinhua, June 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz who served in Saddam Hussein's regime died on Friday in a prison in southern Iraq, an Iraqi official said.

"The authorities of Nasriyah prison has admitted the prisoner Tariq Aziz to al-Hussein hospital in the city of Nasriyah, some 375 km south of Baghdad, after he suffered from heart attack where he was announced dead on Friday afternoon," Adel Dekhil, deputy of Nasriyah provincial governor, said in a press release.

Aziz had repeatedly admitted to hospital because he was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, Dekhil said, adding that his body will be delivered to his family later.

Aziz, 79, was the only Christian in Saddam's regime. He was known as a fierce American critic after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent 1990-1991 Gulf War.

Aziz surrendered to the U.S. troops in his house without resistance on April 24, 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad. Endit