March 14, 2007
AMMAN, Jordan, --Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani left a Jordanian hospital Wednesday to fly
back to his country after more than two weeks of
treatment.
Talabani was hospitalized in Amman on Feb. 25, hours
after he collapsed in northern Iraq from what was
diagnosed as exhaustion and dehydration caused by
lung and sinus infections.
Talabani fell ill in his hometown Sulaimaniyah in
Kurdistan region, and was unconscious when rushed to
the local hospital. But he recovered enough to be
flown to neighboring Jordan the same night.
Talabani left the King Hussein Medical Center in an
Iraqi Embassy convoy escorted by Jordanian police.
Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit was at the airport
to see him off.
Talabani's plane took off from Amman's airport soon
afterward, the official Jordanian news agency Petra
reported.
Iraqi Ambassador Saad al-Hayyani said Talabani would
fly directly to Sulaimaniyah, not Baghdad. |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
|
According to Peyamner website, Iraqi president Jalal
Talabani arrived in Kurdistan on Wednesday at the
Sulaimaniyah international airport and was received
by Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani
Early this month, Talabani said his illness had
perhaps been useful because it had ensured that he
received a full medical checkup. In an interview
with AP Television News on March 1, he said he would
return home to work for "a new, free, democratic,
federal and united Iraq."
In Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan region, 160 miles
northeast of Baghdad, hundreds of Kurds in
traditional clothes gathered Wednesday morning at
the city center that houses the headquarters of
Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, one
of the region's two main parties.
The flag of the Kurdistan Regional Government a
green, red and white tricolor with a yellow sun was
hoisted over the wall of the three-story PUK
building with banners reading: "Your return means
new life to Kurdistan and federal Iraq," and "We
welcome the historic and modest president."
Some in the crowds were singing and dancing in the
streets as drivers decorated cars with posters of
Talabani, honked horns and played loud music.
"I was grieving and crying everyday that the
president was in the hospital, but today my
happiness can't be described," said Zainab Khalid,
53.
He lost his two sons in 1980s as they were pesh
merga members, Kurdish militiamen who once battled
Saddam Hussein's regime and later incorporated into
the U.S.-trained new Iraqi military.
"I was remembering my two sons everyday. Jalal
Talabani's presence is essential for the Kurdish
case and community," added Khalid, who wrapped a
Kurdistan flag around her head.
"Jalal Talabani has brought all Iraqi components
together and our celebrations today demonstrate that
he is a popular president," said Tarkot Karim, a
21-year old student at the English department of the
Sulaimaniya College of Arts.
AP | PNA
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