[AlAhram] Ayatollah Ali Sistani has been an unlikely saviour of Iraq, and his hospitalisation last week has left many Iraqis concerned about his health and their own future| Sistani underwent surgery on a fractured thigh on 16 January following an accident in his home in Najaf. He reportedly fractured a thigh bone when he slipped while washing before evening prayers. Sistani, who turns 90 later this year, was discharged from hospital a day later and returned to his home in Najaf where he will stay under medical observation. |
But since the overthrow of the Sunni-dominated regime of former president Saddam Hussein, Sistani has dominated the leadership of the Shia marjiya, the spiritual reference for Shias, and turned the city into the centre of the faith’s political power in Iraq.